Aralia elata arrived in North American gardens in 1830, brought from eastern Asia with the enthusiasm that attended many ornamental introductions of that era. In cultivation it grows to around twenty feet tall and ten feet wide, with a striking silhouette: multiple stems rise with very few branches, and the enormous bipinnate leaves — sometimes three feet across — cluster toward the tops in an arrangement that reads as tropical even in a temperate garden. In late summer, long panicles of small cream flowers appear at the branch tips, reliably visited by bees, and give way to clusters of round black drupes that birds eat and distribute widely. The thorns on branches and trunk are substantial, which is worth knowing before planting near paths.

The problem with Aralia elata is its behavior beyond the garden. It has become invasive in the northeastern United States and is spreading southward, colonizing forest canopy gaps and disturbed edges with aggressive speed and outcompeting native vegetation. For gardeners in the affected region, the appeal of its architecture does not outweigh the risk of its spread, and native alternatives — notably the closely related Aralia spinosa, devil's walkingstick — deliver a similar structural effect with none of the invasive baggage. In areas where it is not yet established as a problem, it demands moist, fertile, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade and tolerates a reasonable range of soil types.