Osmoxylon lineare - Green Aralia

Green Aralia is a low bushy shrub, about 3 m high, the stems light gray, hairless, shining, somewhat scurfy at the tips. Leaves are crowded at the ends of the branches, palmately cut into 4 to 6 linear segments which are free to the base, these segments hairless, membranaceous, 15-20 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, narrowed above to the tapering tip, the base narrowly decurrent, the decurrent parts so narrow that the segments appear to be petiolulate, this portion 1-1.5 cm long, margins irregularly and slightly repand, the teeth minute, distant; leaf-stalks 4-6 cm long, the base with 2 or 3 prominent crests. Flowers are borne in compound umbels, with few, dark-brown, fringed scales, the flower-cluster-stalks about 10, 2 cm long, bracteate at the base and tip, each bearing at its tip a short-stalked central head and two lateral branches, the central head composed of numerous, dark-brown, fringed-lacerate bracteoles (sterile flowers fallen), the lateral branches about 3 cm long, with a pair of bracts at about the middle, each bearing a at branch-ends head of perfect flowers 1 cm in diameter or less, these heads also with numerous dark-brown lacerate-fringed bracteoles. Flowers are stalkless. Calyx more or less funnel-shaped, flat, about 2 mm long, 1 mm in diameter. Petals and stamens not seen. Ovary 5-celled. Fruit ovoid, 5-ridged, 5-celled, about 3 mm long. A most characteristic species, at once recognizable by its 4 to 6 linear segments which are almost distinct enough to be considered leaflets. Green Aralia is native to Philippines, cultivated elsewhere.