Last week we had our nursery inspected. The inspector enjoys coming to our place, and often other agents will tag along because we have such an entertaining collection of plants. Basically, they are checking to make sure we aren’t harboring invasive species or pests that might endanger Alabama’s ecosystem or agriculture.
Fortunately, all the invasive species we grow are quite well-behaved.
While we were talking, one of the inspectors saw a thorny tree in my food forest.
“Aralia spinosa?” he asked.
“No,” I replied, “but good guess! That’s Zanthoxylum clava-herculis. They look almost the same, don’t they?”
He looked closer and nodded. “I see now. And you have the giant swallowtail caterpillars on here!”
Yep!
The Hercules’ club plant is in the greater citrus family and is a native host for giant swallowtails. It also has the unique ability to numb your mouth when you chew the leaves, hence the common name “toothache tree.” It’s also called “prickly ash.”
However, Aralia spinosa is NOT related, but shares the common names “prickly ash” AND “Hercules’ club,” though it’s more common name is “devil’s walking stick.”
This is why we use Latin, kids.
But I digress.
The inspectors came by on Tuesday of last week, then we headed to the Keepers of the Old Ways event on Friday and Saturday.
There I found a vendor with a single Aralia spinosa plant. Recalling my conversation with the inspector, I thought, hey – why don’t I plant an Aralia spinosa right near the Zanthoxylum clava-herculis?
Having two lookalike plants next to each other so you could compare them would be cool.
So I bought it. And then, while doing some research on the species, I found this interesting article on the pollinator value of Aralia spinosa.
There are any number of reasons that a plant gets a bad reputation. It could be harmful in some way, sporting thorns, bristles, or toxins. Maybe it’s too “weird looking” to fit in with your landscaping look. And we don’t always appreciate plants that spread where we don’t want them. Depending on your gardening preferences and personal aesthetics, devil’s walkingstick might meet each of these criteria.
And yet, if you have space to let it grow, it might become your new favorite pollinator plant.
Earlier this year, I wrote about embracing weeds in your yard. Yes, it’s satisfying when bees and butterflies swarm those coneflowers I bought. But it’s equally pleasing when I see bees hopping between Ohio spiderwort flowers in a patch of yard I haven’t mown in a while.
Ohio spiderwort isn’t the same as devil’s walking stick. Aralia spinosa can grow to twenty feet tall and spreads itself through underground rhizomes. Left unchecked, you could find yourself with a small thorny-trunked forest. But one that, for a few weeks in July, will attract dozens of pollinator species.
In this post, we’ll look at how this plant grows, and how you might manage it if you decide to include it in your Florida friendly landscape. We’ll also take a look at the many, many species of pollinator I caught on video in a single yard. If, like me, you love watching pollinators on flowers, devil’s walking stick is mesmerizing.
I recommend reading the entire post – it’s amazing how many insects he was able to identify on their blooms.
Now that I know how big they can get, I may not plant them next to the Zanthoxylum clava-herculis.
Though it’s tempting!
