Difference between revisions of "Aralia spinosa"

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==Ecology==
 
==Ecology==
===Habitat===  
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===Habitat===<!--Natural communities, human disturbed habitats, topography, hydrology, soils, light, fire regime requirements for removal of competition, etc.-->
 
It is found in disturbed pocosins, bottomlands, disturbed areas, and in moist to dry forests and woodland habitats (Weakley 2015).
 
It is found in disturbed pocosins, bottomlands, disturbed areas, and in moist to dry forests and woodland habitats (Weakley 2015).
  
===Phenology===  
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===Phenology===<!--Timing off flowering, fruiting, seed dispersal, and environmental triggers.  Cite PanFlora website if appropriate: http://www.gilnelson.com/PanFlora/ -->
 
It flowers from June to September (Weakley 2015).
 
It flowers from June to September (Weakley 2015).
  
 
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<!--===Seed dispersal===-->
 
<!--===Seed bank and germination===-->
 
<!--===Seed bank and germination===-->
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===Pollination===
 
===Pollination===
 
The following Hymenoptera families and species were observed visiting flowers of ''Aralia spinosa'' at Archbold Biological Station (Deyrup 2015):
 
The following Hymenoptera families and species were observed visiting flowers of ''Aralia spinosa'' at Archbold Biological Station (Deyrup 2015):
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Vespidae: ''Euodynerus megaera, Parancistrocerus perennis anacardivora, Zethus spinipes''
 
Vespidae: ''Euodynerus megaera, Parancistrocerus perennis anacardivora, Zethus spinipes''
  
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<!--===Diseases and parasites===-->
 
<!--===Diseases and parasites===-->
 
==Conservation and Management==
 
==Conservation and Management==

Revision as of 10:25, 2 March 2016

Aralia spinosa
Aral spin.jpg
Photo by James H. Miller & Ted Bodner, Southern Weed Science Society, Bugwood.org
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Order: Apiales
Family: Araliaceae
Genus: Aralia
Species: A. spinosa
Binomial name
Aralia spinosa
L.
ARAL SPIN dist.jpg
Natural range of Aralia spinosa from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common names: Devil's Walking Stick, Hercules’s-club, Prickly-ash

Taxonomic notes

Description

Perennial shrub or small tree, can grow up to 8ft tall. Has very coarse prickly stems and leaves, and can be alternate or solitary, petiolate. The leaves are decompound. The leaflets are elliptic or ovate, and an grow up to 13cm long and 7cm wide, they’re glabrous or glabrate, acute to caudate, serrate, base oblique, rounded, or cuneate, petiolulate. The racemes and panicles are umbels in structure. The panicle terminal is large with main branches grow up to 6dm long, all branches and pedicels are pubescent. There are numerous flower, pedicels are 5-10mm long. The flowers are greenish to white. There are 5 stigmas that are capitate. There are 5 styles that are fused basally or completely separate. The sepals are 0.4-0.6mm long. The petals are white, 2-3mm long. The styles are fused, ca. 0.5 mm, separate and recurved, ca. 1mm. The drupes are purple or black in color and are 4-6mm in diameter. The pyrenes are 3-4.5mm long. Flowers from June to September. (Radford 1964).

Distribution

It is found as north as New Jersey, west to Illinois, and south to Florida, and then west towards eastern Texas (Weakley 2015).

Ecology

Habitat

It is found in disturbed pocosins, bottomlands, disturbed areas, and in moist to dry forests and woodland habitats (Weakley 2015).

Phenology

It flowers from June to September (Weakley 2015).

Pollination

The following Hymenoptera families and species were observed visiting flowers of Aralia spinosa at Archbold Biological Station (Deyrup 2015):

Apidae: Epeolus zonatus

Colletidae: Colletes mandibularis, Hylaeus confluens

Halictidae: Augochlora pura

Leucospididae: Leucospis robertsoni, L. slossonae

Megachilidae: Coelioxys dolichos, C. sayi, C. texana, Megachile mendica, M. xylocopoides

Sphecidae: Cerceris flavofasciata floridensis, Cerceris rufopicta, Ectemnius decemmaculatus tequesta, Ectemnius maculosus, E. rufipes ais

Vespidae: Euodynerus megaera, Parancistrocerus perennis anacardivora, Zethus spinipes

Conservation and Management

Cultivation and restoration

Photo Gallery

References and notes

Deyrup, M.A. 2015. Database of observations of Hymenoptera visitations to flowers of plants on Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA.

Radford, Albert E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1964, 1968. The University of North Carolina Press. 760. Print.

Weakley, Alan S. Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States: Working Draft of 21 May 2015. University of North Carolina Herbarium (NCU). PDF. 1219.