Aralia

About Five-Fingered

Makes an excellent hedge or shade garden shrub. Thrives with severe pruning, which mitigates its root-suckering habit. Prefers well-drained soil but tolerates any soil type, even heavy pollution. Inconspicuous flowers in early summer. It has a long history of being used as a food plant in Japan, particularly in times of famine when the young leaves were boiled and served with rice.

Nowadays, it is used in many ways including fiveleaf aralia ice cream. Sometimes it is sold under the old name Acanthopanax pentaphyllum.