Vasilis Teodoridis:
Araliaceae | Aralia
6. Aralia chinensis Linnaeus; Sp. Pl. 1: 273. 1753.
???? huang mao cong mu
Shrubs or small trees; 1.5-7 m tall; andromonoecious. Branches prickly. Leaves 2-pinnately compound; with a pair of accessory leaflets or pinnae at each division of rachis; petiole 25-40 cm; pubescent and prickly; petiolules (1-)3-7(-12) mm; leaflets 5-13 per pinna; ovate to broadly ovate; 7-16.5 x 5-11.5 cm; papery to thickly papery; abaxially pale grayish green; tomentose; adaxially dark shining green; densely pubescent; secondary veins 9-11 pairs; base subcordate to rounded and often slightly oblique; margin serrate; apex acuminate to acute. Inflorescence a terminal panicle of umbels; primary axis ca. 20 cm; secondary axes 35-80 cm; ultimate axes with a terminal umbel of bisexual flowers and several lateral umbels of male flowers; bracts and bracteoles persistent; lanceolate; narrowly triangular or linear; sometimes leaflike; to 2.5 cm; umbels 20-50-flowered; pedicels 8-21 mm; densely pubescent. Ovary 5-carpellate; styles 5; united basally; free apically. Fruit globose to ovoid-globose; 3-4.5 mm in diam.; styles persistent; recurved. Fl. Sep-Dec; fr. Nov-Jan.
? Stream banks in forests; scrub fields on slopes. Fujian; Guangdong; Guangxi; Guizhou; Hainan; Jiangxi.