Step aside Butterfly Bush - this large stand of Devil's Walking Stick trees in bloom is attracting hundreds of butterflies and dozens of my favorite Tiger Swallowtail's - the state butterfly of North Carolina. The beauty of the Spicebush Swallowtail is not to be taken for granted either, but the Tigers - Wow! If you are not familiar with the Devil's Walking Stick -they are fascinating trees - native and not invasive and can be managed as part of a transition from forest to yard as in this case.
Aralia spinosa, commonly called devil’s walking stick or Hercules club, gets its common name from the stout, sharp spines found on its leaf stalks, stems and branches. This is a large, upright, suckering, deciduous shrub that typically grows to 10-15’ tall, but infrequently grows as a small flat topped tree to as much as 35’ tall. In its native range in the eastern U.S., it is commonly found in wood margins, fields and pastures. It has interesting compound foliage, late summer flowers, juicy black fruit and spiny stems give this shrub distinctive and unique ornamental interest. Sparse, upright, mostly unbranched, club-like branches, ringed with conspicuous leaf scars and spines, are typically naked at the bottom but crowned at the top by umbrella-like canopies of huge compound leaves
It has stiff branches at right angles and huge, compound leaves that are the largest in North America. New foliage is bronze changing from yellow to red-orange in the fall. This plant is easy to transplant and makes an excellent addition to a pollinator garden.
The bark is gray-brown with persisting prickles and shallow furrows.
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