Eleutherococcus trifoliatus(L.) S.Y.Hu

WFO wfo-0000948147 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Eleutherococcus trifoliatus, photographed by Agnes Trekker
fig. a Agnes Trekker, CC0 1.0 / 2021-09-15 / obs. 157554121
Eleutherococcus trifoliatus, photographed by Agnes Trekker
fig. b Agnes Trekker, CC0 1.0 / obs. 148883597
Eleutherococcus trifoliatus, photographed by 葉子
fig. c 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 124467758
Eleutherococcus trifoliatus, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. d Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 125702245
Eleutherococcus trifoliatus, photographed by 葉子
fig. e 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 111277628
Eleutherococcus trifoliatus, photographed by 葉子
fig. f 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 101839927
Eleutherococcus trifoliatus, photographed by 沈玟伶(Wen-Ling Shen)
fig. g 沈玟伶(Wen-Ling Shen), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 93927101
Eleutherococcus trifoliatus, photographed by 葉子
fig. h 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 95833712

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 9 botanical countries

Regions where Eleutherococcus trifoliatus is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam China South-CentralChina SoutheastTaiwanAssamMyanmarNepalPhilippinesThailandVietnam
Native distribution of Eleutherococcus trifoliatus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Philippines PHI
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Taiwan TAI

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 987 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 8.3 °C 12.4 °C 15.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.0 °C 29.2 °C 30.7 °C
Annual rainfall 1,826 mm 2,940 mm 4,323 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 100 mm 195 mm 818 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 987 research-grade observations of Eleutherococcus trifoliatus that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 11 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Acanthopanax aculeatus (Aiton) Witte
  • Acanthopanax sepium Seem.
  • Acanthopanax spinifolius Merr.
  • Acanthopanax trifoliatus (L.) Voss
  • Aralia trifoliata (L.) Meyen
  • Eleutherococcus spinifolia (Merr.) S.Y.Hu
  • Eleutherococcus trifoliatus var. integerrimus C.B.Shang & Lowry
  • Panax aculeatus Aiton
  • Panax loureirianus DC.
  • Plectronia chinensis Lour.
  • Zanthoxylum trifoliatum L.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.