Devil’s Walking Stick

This tree has many interesting features including late summer flowers, juicy black drupes, gigantic compound leaves, and sharp prickles covering many parts of the plant.

The white flowers grow in 2′ long clusters that really stand out in urban settings. These flowers are replaced with equally impressive cluster of black, spherical fruit. Then the massive bipinnately to tripinnately compund leaves are the largest leaves in continental North America at 5′ long and 4′ wide. Lastly, the spines covering the leaf stalks, stems, branches, and bark are also a stand out, but be careful! These spines are very sharp and will hurt if you are punctured.

Common Name(s)	Devil’s Walking Stick, Hercules Club
Latin Name	Aralia spinosa
Indigenous Name(s)
Cultivar/Variety
Commercial Name

More about Tree #121:

Where to find Arbor Walk #121

Data on the space around this tree

Data on this tree over time

More about Devil’s Walking Stick in general:

How to identify Devil’s Walking Stick

Relationship of Aralia spinosa to other species in the Arboretum

Global Distribution of Devil’s Walking Stick

Additional Resources on the Devil’s Walking Stick