Aralia spinosa L.

vernacular devil's walkingstick — species · Araliaceae

USDA: ARSP2
GBIF: 3036972
Rank: species

devil's walkingstick (Aralia spinosa) — Platephotograph · Melissa McMastersCC BY source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Shrub, Tree
Duration: Perennial
Group: Dicot
Family: Araliaceae Juss.
Genus: Aralia

§2a

Native status, by region

L48 Lower 48 States Native

§2b

County-level range

· 1 county across 1 state

Legend Native · 1 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: Low
Shade: High
Moisture use: High
Fire: High
Salinity: None
Anaerobic: Low
CaCO₃: High
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -25 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 160 min.
Precipitation: 35–80 in/yr
pH range: 4.8–6.6
Root depth: 30 in min.
Fertility need: High
Soil texture: coarse, medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Multiple Stem
Growth rate: Moderate
Lifespan: Moderate
Mature height: 20 ft
Height @ 20 y: 20 ft
Foliage texture: Coarse
Foliage colour: Green
Porosity (summer): Porous
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: White
Fruit colour: Black
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None
Toxicity: Slight

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Early Summer
Seed abundance: High
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Fall
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: Yes
Seeds / lb: 131,000
Propagation: seed, bare root, container

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Routinely Available
Nursery stock: No
Browse palatability: Low
Graze palatability: Low
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Low
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 1 county across 1 state.

Rhode Island view state ↗ 1 N ▾

Washington 44009

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/ARSP2 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/3036972 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25

fetched 2026-05-25T18:27:19Z