Devil's Walkingstick

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / feeds on
densley gregarious, immersed then erumpent. pycnidium of Macrophoma coelomycetous anamorph of Macrophoma millepuncta var. spinosae feeds on petiole of Aralia spinosa

More info for the terms: shrub, tree

devil's walkingstick
prickly ash
Hercules club
angelica tree
prickly elder
pick tree
toothache tree
shotbush


TAXONOMY:
The scientific name of devil's walkingstick is Aralia spinosa
L. (Araliaceae) [7,8,24].


LIFE FORM:
Tree, Shrub

FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS:
No special status

OTHER STATUS:
NO-ENTRY




DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Aralia spinosa
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION:
Devil's walkingstick is found naturally occurring in eastern North
America from New York and Pennsylvania south to Florida and west to
southwestern Iowa and western Texas.  It has escaped from cultivation in
New England to southern Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon,
Washington, and western Europe [4,19,33].

More info for the term: forest

Devil's walkingstick is found naturally occurring in eastern North
America from New York and Pennsylvania south to Florida and west to
southwestern Iowa and western Texas.  It has escaped from cultivation in
New England to southern Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon,
Washington, and western Europe [4,19,33].



Distribution of devil's walkingstick. 1977 USDA, Forest Service map digitized by Thompson and others [39].

More info for the term: forest

Since populations of devil's walkingstick are maintained only on
disturbed areas, periodic fires that create disturbed areas and forest
openings would result in seral sites that could include devil's walkingstick [15,16].

More info for the terms: shrub, tree

Tree, Shrub

More info for the term: cover

Control:  Devil's walkingstick is killed by aerosol applications of
glyphosate at rates of 1.50 to 2.25 pounds per acre (0.56-2.52 kg/ha)
applied three times at 2-week intervals from mid-August to mid-September
[35].  Korostoff [17] reported that devil's walkingstick is controlled
by cutting and application of herbicide to the stump.  The most
effective treatment reported by Loftis [20] is injection of stems larger
than 2 inches in diameter with herbicide; basal sprays were ineffective
on his study sites.

Establishment:  Devil's walkingstick populations are maintained only on
disturbed sites.  When the overstory cover becomes thick enough, devil's
walkingstick declines.  Defoliation by gypsy moth infestation in
Pennsylvania and Maryland resulted in an increase in stems per acre of
devil's walkingstick, due both to injury of devil's walkingstick
ramets and to release by removal of overstory [12].  Mowing or cutting
of stems results in vigorous sprouting of new ramets from underground
rhizomes and is recommended for maintenance of vigorous stands [14,15].
Fire also produces appropriate disturbances and stem damage, and could
be used to maintain devil's walkingstick stands [36].

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: fruit

Devil's walkingstick flowers in July and August, setting fruit
that ripens from September to October [33].

More info for the terms: ground residual colonizer, secondary colonizer, tree

   Tree with adventitious-bud root crown/root sucker
   Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
   Initial-offsite colonizer (off-site, initial community)
   Secondary colonizer - off-site seed

The scientific name of devil's walkingstick is Aralia spinosa
L. (Araliaceae) [7,8,24].

Aralia spinosa L. Sp. PI. 273. 1753
Angelica spinosa Shecut, Fl. Car. 167. 1806.
Aralia Leroana K. Koch, Wochenschr. Gartn. 7: 369. 1864.
Aralia spinosa f. subinermis Moldenke, Castanea 9: 54. 1944.
Tree, up to 12 m. high or more, the trunk up to 25 cm. in diameter, with the branches and branchlets armed with stout straight or incurved prickles; leaves ample, bipinnate, the petiole up to 30 cm. long or more, often armed, the rachis swollen at the nodes, often armed, the pinnae 7-13-foliolate, short-petiolulate, often subtended by a single leaflet, the leaflets papyraceous, ovate, up to 15 cm. long and 9 cm. broad but usually much smaller, short-stalked (the terminal one long-stalked), obtuse to subcordate at the base, acute to acuminate at the apex, dentate to crenate at the margins, sometimes spinose or slightly pilose on the principal nerves, paler beneath ; inflorescence often longer than the leaves, the peduncle and rachis stout, sometimes armed or puberulent, the secondary branches and pedicels usually pale-pilose, the bracts and bractlets lanceolate; flowers 5-merous, 15-40 per umbel, the pedicels usually 4—12 mm. long; calyx obconic, 1-1.5 mm. long, the lobes deltoid, subacute; petals 2-3 mm. long; filaments up to 4 mm. long, the anthers about 2 mm. long; styles connate at the base, free above; fruit 4-6 mm. in diameter, black.
Type locality: Virginia.
Distribution: Delaware, central Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri, and Oklahoma, southward to Florida and eastern Texas; cultivated or escaped northward to New York and Connecticut.