Part 9

Range: Newfoundland across to Ontario, south to Iowa, Illinois, and Georgia.

Distinguishing Features: The Smooth Shadbush differs from the Shadbush by its smooth leafstalks and juicy, edible, dark purple fruits.

HERCULES’ CLUB Aralia spinosa L.

Other Name: Devil’s Walking-stick.

Growth Form: Small tree to 30 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 6 inches; crown widely spreading.

Bark: Dark brown, roughened, shallowly furrowed, with short, hard prickles.

Twigs: Stout, pale brown or gray, smooth except for many short, hard prickles; leaf scars alternate, broadly U-shaped, with about 15 bundle traces.

Buds: Cone-shaped, brown, smooth, up to ½ inch long.

Leaves: Alternate, doubly or triply pinnately compound, with very numerous leaflets; leaflets ovate to lance-ovate, pointed at the tip, tapering to rounded at the base, up to 3 inches long, about half as wide, coarsely toothed along the edges, green and smooth on the upper surface, paler and smooth on the lower surface, except usually for a few prickles along the veins.

Flowers: Numerous, in many umbrella-shaped clusters, appearing during late June and July, each with 5 small white petals and purple stalks.

Fruit: Black, spherical berries up to ⅛ inch in diameter, containing 2-5 seeds.

Wood: Light in weight, soft, brittle, close-grained, pale brown.

Use: Hercules’ Club is sometimes grown as an ornamental.

Habitat: Rich woods.

Range: New Jersey across to Iowa, south to Texas, east to Florida.

Distinguishing Features: The clusters of flowers and the leaves each may be as much as 4 feet long. The short, sharp prickles of the twigs are distinctive.

PAWPAW Asimina triloba Dunal.

Growth Form: Small tree rarely up to 40 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 10 inches; crown broad and spreading; trunk straight, slender; thickets develop by means of root suckers.

Bark: Dark brown, thin, smooth at first, becoming shallowly fissured with age.

Twigs: Slender, smooth, gray; leaf scars alternate, 2-ranked, more or less horseshoe-shaped, usually with 5 or less commonly 7 bundle traces.

Buds: Very narrow, dark rusty-brown, covered with golden hairs, up to ⅔ inch long, without bud scales.

Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades broadly lance-shaped to elliptic, short-pointed at the tip, narrowed to the base, without teeth along the edges, smooth on both surfaces, paler on the lower surface, up to 1 foot long and 6 inches broad; leafstalks short, slender, smooth.

Flowers: Borne singly when the leaves begin to unfold, up to 2 inches across, green at first, becoming deep maroon, composed of three wrinkled, leathery sepals and six similar petals.

Fruit: Oblong, thick, up to 6 inches long, greenish-yellow, with yellow edible flesh and several dark brown seeds, ripening in September.

Wood: Soft, coarse-grained, light in weight, greenish-yellow.

Use: The fruit is used as a source of food; the wood has few uses.

Habitat: Woods and thickets, often many growing together in a colony.

Range: New York across to Michigan and Iowa, south to Texas, east to Florida.