CARROT FAMILY 215 



1. ARALIA [Tourn.] L. Sp. PL 273. 1753. 



Perennial herbs, shrubs, or trees, with alternate pinnately or ternately decompound 

 leaves and sheathing petioles. Flowers white or greenish, borne in racemose, corymbose 

 or paniculate umbels. Pedicels jointed below the flowers. Sepals 5 or obsolete. Petals 5, 

 spreading, obtuse with short inflexed points. Stamens 5. Disk depressed. Ovary 5-celled. 

 Fruit a small berry. [Name unexplained.] 



About 30 species, natives of North America and Asia. Type species, Aralia racemosa L. 



Umbels numerous, paniculate. 1- ^ calif ornica. 



Umbels 1-7, corymbose. 2. A. nudicauhs. 



1. Aralia californica S. Wats. California Spikenard. Fig. 3462. 



Aralia californica S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 11: 144. 1876. 



Aralia californica var. acximinata S. Wats, ex Howell, Fl. N.W. Amer. 271. 1898. 



Perennial herb from large roots with milky juice; the stems simple, stout, 1-3 m. high. 

 Leaves ternate, then pinnately 3-5-foliolate, glabrous; leaflets 5-25 cm. long, ovate to elliptic 

 ovate, acuminate at apex, subcordate at base, serrate ; panicle 30-45 cm. long ; glandular-tomen- 

 tulose, umbels numerous, many-flowered ; pedicels 1-2 cm. long ; involucral bracts, several, small, 

 linear'; sepals minute ; petals scarcely 2 mm. long ; berry red, becoming black in ripening, 4-5 mm. 

 broad. 



Stream banks and moist woods, Transition and Upper Sonoran Zones; southwestern Oregon, south in the 

 Sierra Nevada, and the Coast Ranges to southern California. Type locality: northern California. July-Sept. 



2. Aralia nudicaulis L. Wild Sarsaparilla. Fig. 3463. 



Aralia nudicaulis L. Sp. PI. 274. 1753. 



Perennial from an elongated rootstock, the leaf and peduncle arising from a very short stem, 

 sheathed at the base by thin dry scales. Leaves ternate, the primary divisions slender-stalked, 

 pinnately 3-5-foliolate; petioles erect. 15-30 cm. long; leaflets oval to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 5-10 cm. long, finely serrate; umbels usually 3; involucre none; flowers greenish, 3 mm. broad; 

 berry globose, 5-6 mm. in diameter, purple-black. 



Moist woods. Transition and Boreal Zones; in the Pacific States known only from Mount Carlton, Spokane 

 County, Washington, extending from there eastward to Newfoundland, Colorado, Missouri, and Georgia. Type 

 locality': Virginia. May-June. 



2. OPLOPANAX (Torr. & Gray) Miq. Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Batav. 1 : 16. 1863. 



A densely prickly shrub, with large palmately lobed leaves. Flowers in racemose or 

 paniculate umbels, small, greenish white, the rays subtended by laciniate bracts. Sepals 

 obsolete. Petals 5, valvate. Stamens 5, with filiform filaments. Ovary 2-3-celled ; styles 2. 

 Fruit a berry, laterally compressed, bicarpellate. [Name Greek, meaning weapon, and 

 Panax, a generic name used in the Araliaceae.] 



A monotypic genus of western North America and northeastern Asia. 



1. Oplopanax horridum (J. E. Smith) Miq. Devil's Club. Fig. 3464. 



Panax horridum J. E. Smith in Rees, Cyclop. 26: no. 10. 1813. 

 Echinopanax horridum Cooper, Pacif. R. Rep. 12: 31. 1860. (Nomen nudum) 

 Oplopanax horridum Miq. Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Batav. 1: 16. 1863. 

 Fatsia horrida Benth. & Hook ex S. Wats. Bot. Calif. 1: 273. 1876. 

 Ricinophy Hum horridum 'iic\& Si. 'iAzchr. Bot. Gaz. 61 : 45. 1916. 



Ill-scented, densely prickly shrub, 2-4 m. high. Leaves rounded in outline, 15-50 cm. broad, 

 cordate at base with narrow sinus, palmately lobed, the lobes acute and irregularly serrate, the 

 petioles and veins prickly ; inflorescence terminal, 10-30 cm. long, wooly-pubescent and prickly ; 

 peduncles subtended by fimbriate bracts ; stamens well exceeding the ovate petals ; berry scarlet, 

 4-5 mm. long. 



Streams and moist woods, Canadian and Humid Transition Zones; Alaska to Crater Lake Oregon, east to 

 Montana, and Isle Royale, Lake Superior; also in Japan. Type locality: Nootka Sound. May-July. 



Family 109. UMBELLIFERAE.^:^ 

 Carrot Family 



Herbs with usually hollow stems and alternate compound or rarely simple leaves, 

 the petioles commonly dilated at base. Stipules when present minute. Inflorescence 



• Text contributed by Mildred Esther Mathias and Lincoln Constance. 



