Saturday Botany Photos: Devil's Club Oplopanax horridus

Devil's Club fruit cluster

This Saturday's plant species is Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus, Apiaceae).  This species is an understory shrub that grows to 3 meters tall with stems and leaves armed with quite vicious-looking yellowish spines.  It often forms dense thickets.  The fruit is not edible but it is difficult to gather in quantity anyway due to the spiny nature of the plant.

Note:  Those of you with some taxonomic savvy may notice that I listed this species' family as "Apiaceae" instead of "Araliaceae".  Both families have been combined by taxonomists into a larger Apiaceae and so Oplopanax is no longer in the Araliaceae.

Devil's Club branch showing large (1 ft diameter) maple-like leaves.

Close-up of the spines on Devil's Club