Introduction to the Araliaceae Family

The Araliaceae family is best known for its most popular plant, ginseng. But there are so many other lovely plants in this family. My personal favorite member of this family is Oplopanax horridus, or Devil’s Club, like the one pictured above, which is native from southern Alaska, USA, throughout most of British Columbia, Canada, and south into Oregon, USA. Growing up in BC, it was a common site in mossy, wet forests and mountain ravines. It’s pretty typical of the family growing as a shrub with large leaves and small flowers in tall umbels followed by small red drupes.

The Araliaceae are part of the Apiales order and are very closely related to the Apiaceae (carrot) family, sharing many overlapping characteristics. In general, however, the Apiaceae are usually herbs that produce dry schizocarps, while the Araliaceae are usually shrubs or trees and produce berry-like drupes. 

Beginner’s Guide to the Ginseng (Araliaceae) Family

If you’re new to plant morphology, this guide is a perfect beginner’s description to learn to identify the Araliaceae family, with no need to know any scientific jargon. Below this section are morphology photos to help you identify the family, followed by pictures of individual species found in North America. But for researchers or those wanting to learn a more in-depth version, refer to the Scientific Botanical Description below the images for highly detailed scientific descriptions and genus-level distribution data across the American continents from Canada south to southern South America.

Leaves and Stems of the Gineseng Family

The Ginseng family is mostly perennial trees and shrubs, but there is an occasional woody vine and herb as well. None release milky juices when damaged. Most have medium to large leaves, including some over 3 m long, but occasionally they can be small (1-2 cm). Leaves are usually arranged in a spiral pattern around the stem and have sheaths that wrap around their base. Leaf blades are simple or compound (made of leaflets); when simple, the margins are often divided in some way, often lobed and maple leaf-like.

Flowers of the Ginseg Family

The flowers are usually small and arranged in umbels or spikes, which are often further arranged in large compound spikes or branching inflorescences, and they occasionally resemble the umbels of the Apiaceae family, which can cause confusion. The flowers are symmetrical with five petals that are often thick or fleshy with a highly variable calyx that may be reduced to a rim of teeth.

Reproductive Features of the Ginseng Family

The reproductive system varies in the ginseng family from bisexual flowers with both male (stamens) and female (ovary, style, and stigma) parts in the same flower to separate male and female flowers on separate plants (dioecious). But there are usually 5 stamens and up to 100 in some species. Flowers usually have a fleshy nectar-producing disk at the base of the styles (tubes that capture pollen).

Fruits of the Ginseng Family

The fruits in this family are almost always fleshy berry-like drupes (fleshy fruits with stony pits, like a cherry). But sometimes it is a dry fruit that splits into segments (schizocarp), similar to the Apiaceae (carrot) family.

Morphology of Araliaceae in North America

Some Araliaceae Species in North America

Aralioideae Subfamily

Aralia nudicaulis – Wild Sarsaparilla

Herbaceous perennial with underground stems. Large compound leaves have 5 (3 – 7) finely serrated leaflets, which are often purplish green. Small white flowers in rounded clusters, 4 – 5 cm wide, on scapes not much taller than the leaves. Flowers are followed by edible purple-black berries. This plant is native to northern and eastern North America.

Aralia spinosa – Devil’s Walking Stick

An aromatic, spiny, deciduous shrub or small tree, 2 – 8 m tall, with exceptionally large, bipinnate leaves, 70 – 120 cm long. Small white flowers in compound panicles are followed by purplish-black berries. Native to eastern North America.

Fatsia japonica – Paperplant

Evergreen shrub with stout, sparsely branched stems. The large, 20 – 40 cm leaves are deeply palmately lobed with 7 – 9 lobes, spirally arranged, leathery, and borne on long petioles. Flowers are small, white, born in dense terminal compound umbels, followed by small black berries. Native to Japan and Korea, it is also cultivated in North America.

Hedera helix – English Ivy

A highly invasive, vigorous, root-climbing vine with variably 3-5 lobed leaves, depending on the cultivar and whether it has reached reproductive age. It seldom flowers but produces small umbels of greenish-yellow flowers followed by purple-black berries. It spreads mostly vegetatively and takes over entire areas when it is left unchecked. Click for more information!

Oplopanax horridus – Devil’s Club

A woody, deciduous, spiny perennial shrub with large, spiny, palmately lobed leaves, small yellow-green flowers in racemes followed by clusters of small red berry-like drupes. This species is endemic to North America, primarily in the Pacific Northwest, with a small disjunct population in the Great Lakes. Click the link for more info!

Hydrocotyloideae Subfamily

Hydrocotyle ranunculoides – Floating Pennywort

Pennywort is a creeping, mat-forming aquatic perennial of shallow water or wet mud. It has thin stems and rounded to kidney-shaped leaves with ~3-7 shallow lobes on the margins and a deeply notched base, which makes it look almost peltate. Small flowers appear separately in clusters. It is native to North, Central, and South America but has become invasive elsewhere.

Uses of the Araliaceae 

The Araliaceae are often used as ornamentals, including plants like the angelica tree (Aralia spinosa) and ivy (Hedera spp.), as well as houseplants such as Hedera, Aralia, Polyscias, Schefflera, and Fatsia. Please note that Hedera species have become a widespread invasive species in many areas and should only be grown with extreme caution.

Another use is the pith of Tetrapanax papyriferus, which is used to make Chinese rice paper. Other members are used medicinally, including ginseng roots from Panax quinquefolius and devil’s club (Oplopanax horridus) root bark, used for respiratory conditions.

Ecosystem and Wildlife Values of the Araliaceae

The Araliaceae is often a crucial late-season pollinator species in forested ecosystems that blooms in late summer, fall, and even early winter when other pollen sources have ended, providing essential energy reserves for overwintering wasps, native bees, hoverflies, and butterflies preparing for diapause or migration.

The large shrubs and vines create dense cover for nesting and habitat for birds, arboreal amphibians and reptiles, and insects.

Taxonomy of Araliaceae

There are 1450 species in 43 genera within the Apiales order of core Eudicots. Currently, there are two recognized subfamilies in the Araliaceae. The Hydrocotyloideae historically was considered part of the Apiaceae due to their herbaceous habit and schizocarps. However, modern phylogenetics showed that it was polyphyletic in the Apiaceae and was moved to the Araliaceae instead.

Furthermore, within the Araliaceae, there have been many generic changes since I last worked on the family, with some genera increasing massively (like Polyscias), others decreasing, and some appearing and some disappearing. Still, this is the most up-to-date information I have and will be making edits when new information becomes available.

Aralioideae Subfamily

The Aralioideae is by far the largest subfamily of the Araliaceae and is made mostly of woody shrubs and trees but is sometimes vines (root or stem climbers) or occasionally perennial herbs. Leaves are usually alternate and usually pinnately to palmately compound (rarely simple), stipulate with highly variable connate, intrapetiolar, hooded, or sometimes cauline stipules. Inflorescences are usually compound, often primary umbels, heads, or spikes arranged in racemes or panicles. The fruit is almost always a drupe.  

Genera of the Aralioideae Subfamily

Anakasia (1), Aralia (73), Astropanax (15), Astrotricha (20), Brassaiopsis (45), Cephalaralia (1), Chengiopanax (2), Cheirodendron (6), Crepinella (33), Cussonia (20), Dendropanax (97), Didymopanax (38), Eleutherococcus (29), Fatsia (3), Gamblea (4), Harmsiopanax (3), Hedera (19), Heptapleurum (322), Heteropanax (9), Kalopanax (1), Macropanax (18), Merrilliopanax (3), Metapanax (2), Meryta (28), Motherwellia (1), Neocussonia (16), Neopanax (5), Oplopanax (3), Oreopanax (148), Osmoxylon (61), Panax (15), Plerandra (33), Polyscias (180+), Pseudopanax (7), Raukaua (6), Schefflera (13), Sciodaphyllum (146), Seemannaralia (1), Sinopanax (1), Tetrapanax (1), Trevesia (8), Woodburnia (1).

Hydrocotyloideae Subfamily

The Hydrocotyloideae are mostly herbaceous perennials, rarely annuals, or aquatics, typically occurring in moist soils, wetlands, and shallow water. The stem is often prostrate, creeping, or mat-forming, rooting at the nodes, and creeping stems often have an endodermis. The leaf lamina is orbicular–peltate or deeply twice-lobed palmately; the margin is crenate or serrate, and they are stipulate, often small and attached at the petiole base. Flowers are small, and sepals are often tiny or absent. Fruits are laterally compressed schizocarps with a woody endocarp and no vittae (oil tubes) separating them from the Apiaceae.

Genera of the Hydrocotyloideae Subfamily

Hydrocotyle (182), Trachymene (59).

Key Differences From Similar Families

The Araliaceae are mostly confused with the closely related family, the Apiaceae, or carrot family. They can be difficult to differentiate, especially when the Araliaceae produces white umbels. However, some more common differences to look for include:

• Apiaceae are usually herbs, while Araliaceae are usually shrubs and trees.
• Araliaceae usually have stipules, even if very small or fused to the petiole base.
• Apiaceae petiole bases lack spiules but almost universally sheathe the stem.
• Apiaceae fruit is usually a dry schizocarp with two mericarps.
• Araliaceae fruit is usually a berry-like drupe (but occasionally a schizocarp).

Scientific Botanical Description of the Araliaceae Family

Habit & Leaf Form of the Araliaceae

The Araliaceae are a morphologically diverse family of shrubs, moderate-sized trees (occasionally very large in some Polyscias), woody epiphytes, vines, and occasionally herbs (Panax, some Aralia, and the Hydrocotyloideae); occasionally some exhibit a switch-plant architecture with reduced foliage and photosynthetic shoots. They can be self-supporting, epiphytic, climbing, scandent, or rooted. Growth is predominantly pachycaul with large leaves and thick stems, but occasionally they are leptocaul in Pseudopanax, where long and short shoots are seen. They are resinous, lack colored latex, and may or may not contain essential oils.

Leaves are usually medium-sized but can be enormous (over 3 m in Aralia) or, more rarely, small, 1-2 cm long (e.g., Raukaua anomalus), and plants are sometimes conspicuously heterophyllous (e.g., Hedera helix). Their attachment to the stem is nearly always alternate, mostly spiral, or rarely distichous, four-ranked, opposite (Cheirodendron, Polyscias), or pseudowhorled (Panax). Leaves are often leathery, usually petiolate and rarely subsessile. They are usually more or less sheathing but may sometimes be non-sheathing; when sheathing, they have free margins. Leaves may be gland-dotted or non-glandular, aromatic or odorless.

Leaves are mostly simple or sometimes compound, including ternate, pinnate, palmate, multiply compound, and sometimes peltate (as in Hydrocotyloideae and some Harmsiopanax). When simple, margins vary from entire to palmately lobed or dissected, with pinnate or palmate venation. Leaves may or may not have stipules; when present, they are intrapetiolar but are often adnate to and can be difficult to distinguish from the petiole base. Some taxa have prickles or spines to defend the stems, petioles, and leaf midribs (as in Oplopanax).

Flowers of the Araliaceae

Plants exhibit diverse sexual systems and may be hermaphroditic, monoecious, andromonoecious, gynomonoecious, dioecious, or polygamomonoecious. Flowers are often arranged in compound inflorescences, with umbels or heads and rarely spikes as the primary structure, and are aggregated in large compound panicles or spikes. Inflorescences are terminal, axillary, leaf-opposed, or rarely epiphyllous.

Flowers are small, actinomorphic, cyclic, and usually 5-merous but rarely may be calyptrate. The floral receptacle has neither an androphore nor a gynophore. The perianth is usually arranged in 2 isomerous or anisomerous whorls or may be petaline when the calyx is reduced.

The calyx, when present, has 3–5 (–12) lobes or teeth in one whorl, free or connate. It is most often adnate to the inferior ovary and reduced to a short rim or to reduced teeth.

The corolla has 5 (3–20) distinct or basally connate petals in a single whorl, alternating with the calyx lobes. Petals are usually regular, often fleshy, and usually sessile, with broad bases inserted around the upper part of the ovary, and are rarely calyptrate. Estivation is predominantly valvate but may be imbricate in the Aralieae tribe.

Androecium of the Araliaceae

The androecium has 5 (3–12) or 100+ members, consisting exclusively of fertile stamens that are free from the perianth and from one another, all of equal size and strongly inflexed in the bud. Stamens are usually isomerous with the perianth and alternating with the petals (except when polyandrous).

Filaments are distinct, slender, and inserted on top or around the apigynous disk. Anthers are dorsifixed, versatile, introrse, and dehisce via longitudinal slits. Anthers are almost always tetrasporangiate (but occasionally appear bisporangiate by fusion during development) or multisporangiate in some Plerandra.

Gynoecium of the Araliaceae

The gynoecium is syncarpous to synovarious (rarely appearing pseudo-monomerous), with usually 2–5 (but 1–100) carpels and no false septa. In most cases, the ovary is inferior or semi-inferior or, rarely, superior in some Polyscias species (formerly Tetraplasandra).

A prominent nectariferous epigynous disk forms directly on the swollen style bases (stylopodium), crowning the tip of the ovary inside the stamen ring. The number of styles varies widely from 1 to 100, with one style for every carpel; they may be completely free, basally connate, or fused into a solid or hollow stylopodium column.

Stigmas are usually present and are terminal or decurrent, forming a double-stigmatic crest that caps the stylopodium. They may be wet or dry and are papillate.

Placentation is axile to apical in plurilocular ovaries (or parietal to apical in rare unilocular states). Each locule contains one functional pendulous ovule (or two, but the second is typically abortive) at maturity. They are epitropous, with a ventral raphe, and are anatropous, unitegmic, and crassinucellate or occasionally tenuinucellate.  

Fruit of the Araliaceae

The Arialiaceae overwhelmingly produce fleshy, indehiscent drupes (most Aralioideae) with separable pyrenes or with one stone (there are as many pyrenes as locules).

However, most Hydrocotyloideae produce laterally compressed schizocarps with 2-5 (6-100) mericarps, featuring a woody endocarp and lacking oil tubes (separating them from the Apiaceae).

In some taxa, the gynoecia may fuse during maturation to form compact multiple fruits.

Seeds are pendulous, solitary, and possess well-developed, copious oily endosperm that is mostly entire but may be distinctly ruminate in some taxa (e.g., Hedera).

Global Distribution of Araliaceae

The Araliaceae are mostly a tropical family, but some are endemic to temperate climates as well. They are in Eurasia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas, from Arctic Canada to temperate South America.

Distribution of Araliaceae in the Americas

Canadian Araliaceae Genera

Aralioideae in Canada

Aralia 5 spp. native to all of Canada except NU; Eleutherococcus 1 sp. intro to ON; Hedera 1-2 spp. intro BC and ON, very invasive in coastal BC; Kalopanax 1 sp. intro to ON; Oplopanax 1 sp. native to BC, AB, YT, and ON; Panax 2 spp. native to ON, QC, NB, NS, and PE.

Hydrocotyloideae in Canada

Hydrocotyle 4 native to ON, QC, NB, NS, PE, and NL (excluding Labrador) and intro to BC.

USA Araliaceae Genera

Aralioideae in the USA

Aralia 8 spp. are native and intro to all of the USA exccept NV; Cheirodendron 5 of 6 C Pacific endemic spp. endemic to HI; Eleutherococcus 1 sp. intro to UT, IN, KY, OH, WV, PA, NY, CT, and MA; Hedera 3 spp intro and invasive to most of the USA except NV, MT S to NM, ND S to OK, MN, IA, WI, VT, NH, ME, and inc. HI; Heptapleurum 1 sp. intro FL and HI; Kalopanax 1 sp. intro to NY, CT, MD, VA, OH, and IN; Oplopanax 1 sp. native to WA, OR, ID, WY, MI, NY, and AK; Panax 2 spp. native to all E USA from ND S to TX and all E except ND, TX, and FL; Polyscias 10 spp. including 9 spp. native/endemic to HI and 1 sp. intro in FL; Tetrapanax monospecific intro AL, FL, and HI.

Hydrocotyloideae in the USA

Hydrocotyle 9 spp. native and intro to most of the USA except ID, MT, WY, CO, ND, SD, NE, and IA, and it is intro in HI.     

Mexico Araliaceae Genera

Aralioideae in Mexico

Aralia ~5-9 spp. native throughout all of Mexico; Dendropanax ~3-6 spp. native to most of Mexico except BC, BCS, Son, and Sin; Didymopanax 1 sp. native to SW+SE Mexico, Ver; Oreopanax 13 spp. Mexico + neoendemic genus native throughout all of Mexico, including the Mexican Pacific Islands.

Hydrocotyloideae in Mexico

Hydrocotyle 5-10 spp. native throughout all of Mexico.

Neotropical Araliaceae Genera

Aralioideae in the Neotropics

Aralia ~ 8 spp. native to CAM, Cuba, Hispaniola, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, N Argentina, E+S Brazil; Crepinella 33 NW SAM endemic spp. of Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, N+C Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru; Dendropanax ~75 spp. native to CAM, Greater Antilles, Leeward Is, Venezuelan Antilles, Trinidad-Tobago, tropical SAM S to Peru, Bolivia, NE Argentina (except for Suriname, French Guiana, and Uruguay); Didymopanax 38 Mexico & neoendemic spp. native to CAM, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Leeward Is, Trinidad-Tobago, tropical SAM S to NE Argentina (exc NW Argentina, N Chile), including at least 12 narrow endemics of Brazil; Fatsia 1 sp. intro Juan Fernandez Is; Heptapleurum 1 sp. intro to Bermuda, Bahamas, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Leeward & Windward Is; Oreopanax 148 Mexico + neoendemic spp. of CAM, Antilles (exc Cayman Is, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles), Trinidad-Tobago, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, N+E+S Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, NW Argentina; Plerandra 1 sp. intro to Trinidad-Tobago; Polyscias 3 spp. intro to El Salvador, Bahamas, Hispaniola, Leeward Is., Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, and Venezuelan Antilles; Raukaua 1 sp. endemic to N+C Chile; Sciodaphyllum 146 neoendemic spp. of Jamaica, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Venezuela; Tetrapanax monospecific intro to S Brazil.

Hydrocotyloideae in the Neotropics

Hydrocotyle 40-50 spp. native and widespread in moist habitats of CAM, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Leeward & Windward Is., Galapagos, and all of SAM, with high diversity in the Andes.

Patagonia Araliaceae Genera

Aralioideae in Patagonia

Raukaua 2 spp. endemic to N+C Chile (1) and S Argentina (1).

Hydrocotyloideae in Patagonia

Hydrocotyle 5 spp. native throughout Patagonia and the Falkland Islands.

Additional Information and References

• Visit Lyrae’s Dictionary of Botanical Terms to learn the terminology of botanists. Note that if you hover over most of the words in the articles, you can also get definitions from them there.
• FNA 1993+. Flora of North America. https://floranorthamerica.org/Main_Page. Accessed 2022-current.
• iNaturalist.org 2020+. https://www.inaturalist.org/. Accessed 2020-current. If you like plants or nature in general, please join the iNaturalist community and start sharing your observations with others. The data we track is invaluable for scientists like me wanting to track population changes over time.
• POWO 2019+. Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet: http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/. Accessed 2020-current.
• Stevens, P. F. 2001+. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, July 2017 [more or less continuously updated since]. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/
• USDA, NRCS. 2020+. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 2 June 2020). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC, USA; Accessed 2020-present.
• Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. (1992). The Families of Flowering Plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 2nd May 2020. delta-intkey.com. Accessed spring through fall of 2020.
• WFO (2022+): World Flora Online. Published on the Internet: http://www.worldfloraonline.org. Accessed Spring 2022 – current

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You can cite this site as follows: Willis, Lyrae (2020+). Lyrae’s Nature Blog – Plant Families of North America. https://lyraenatureblog.com/. Accessed [Enter Date].