Prickly castor oil tree
Kalopanax septemlobus · Araliaceae · 음나무
How to spot it
Branches are full of prickles, and the leaves are palmately cut into 5-9 lobes.
Look
- Leaves
- Round leaves are cut into 5-9 lobes; the lobes are egg-shaped with pointed tips and a heart-shaped base. Each leaf is 10-30 cm in length and width with palmate veins, hairless above, with toothed margins and a leaf stalk 10-30 cm long.
- Flowers
- In early August, yellow-green flowers 5 mm across form several umbels. Bracts are 1-2 cm long and fall early; flower stalks are 7-19 mm.
- Fruit
- The drupe is nearly round (4 x 6 mm) and blue-black; the seeds are flat and semicircular, 2 (3) per fruit, maturing from late September to mid-October.
- Bark
- Bark is gray-brown and irregularly fissured lengthwise. Branches have many prickles, and the ones from earlier years fall off as they age.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native
- Native to
- Also found in Japan and China; in Korea it grows nationwide.
- Ecology
- Shade-tolerant when young and able to grow under other trees, but needs sun as it grows and grows with a single trunk; suited to deep, fertile ground. It grows into a large tree and is usually not gregarious.