Aralia chinensis

The Chinese angelica-tree or Chinese aralia is in the ivy or Araliaceae family and is found in China, Vietnam and Malaysia. It is a deciduous, herbaceous, perennial, spiny-stemmed shrub growing to a height and spread of about 5.0 m.

• Leaves are huge, showy, bi-pinnately compound and up to 0.8 m long and 0.6 m across, with 5–13 leaflets per pinna, each ovate to broad-ovate, pale gray-green, turning yellow in fall.
• Flowers are small, off-white, blooming in large inflorescences in late summer to autumn, with each inflorescence a terminal panicle of umbels, and each umbel with 20–50 tiny flowers to 3 mm across.
• Flowers develop into clusters of fleshy, spherical, dark purple-black drupes which ripen in fall which are attractive to birds.