I just wanted to make sure that you know the plant. My father planted one on his property about 12 years ago. It began taking over the area and at first it was thought that since the AS looked so nice, it would be OK. Last year a bulldozer was used to remove most from the area leaving only the main tree and two others. It had spread throughout an area 300 feet by 200 feet and was stopping any native from establishing itself. It spreads underground through massive root systems. I have two which he gave me. I've been able to control them by placing both in an area which we mow everytime the lawn needs a cut. I will also pull out small ones if I see them surface and this year I pulled at least 15 out, some as far away as 3 feet. Folks often ask me for the small ones but so far I have refused after seeing what it did on my father's property. The birds love the seeds here so I rarely get to even see them mature. It's a great tree for late season pollinators and migrating Monarchs, not to mention it's wonderful structure and all year interest.

cherokee34, would you not be able to break down the root cluster in to smaller pieces and still be able you propagate a new plant from it or do you need the entire root ball? I'm assuming you would cut off all the stock to the ground and just transplant the root tubers in the fall like a raspberry or something. I have had a friend mail me ginseng tuber in the fall when the top foliage dies back, she just dug up the root and shipped, but of course I do not know if you could do this with devils club. Either way, I would really be interested in getting some live root if possible and if not then I would love to try from seed, however I have read that seed can be quite hard to start. Email me if your interested and we can sort out the details and cost

It sure is an appealing plant from an aesthetic standpoint with the tropical-like foliage and huge mid summer flowers followed by clusters of dark fruit. However, it can be a bane in a more cultivated area of your garden due to all those armed shoots coming up everywhere - it is thorny and prolific! Wildlife? I am not sure, but I would think birds and critters will eat the berries. Can it be moved? I dont know how easily, but some suckering shrubs can be hard to move successfully from a colony. I am thinking of plants like Aesculus parviflora and Asimina triloba. Try it and see. Rx

this is a very interesting thread. i am in NH and i guess i always assumed i had aralia spinosa. after reading all of the above information about elata, i compared my shrub to the information from Janet above. guess what? i DO have aralia spinosa! no doubt about it. everything above matches. A. spinosa has an "inflorescence with a distinct central axis," that is, one main stalk to the flower cluster (YES). With elata, "central axis of the inflorescence very short or lacking" and the inflorescence has 3-8 spreading secondary branches (NO). On spinosa leaves, the veins of the leaflets do not run to the teeth(YES); on elata, they do (NO). Spinosa leaflets have a definite petiole (YES, about 4" on mine), elata leaflets are sessile or nearly so (NO). thank you so much for posting this information so that i could confirm that it is the native variety. gerryld, if i recall, the branches do seem to all fall off over the winter. i never noticed the shrub until last year when it flowered and had outstanding berries. the birds went crazy. mine is also not really not suckering too much.