Kalopanax septemlobus(Thunb.) Koidz.

castor araliaprickly castor oil tree

WFO wfo-0000220583 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Kalopanax septemlobus, photographed by Luka S. (someplant)
fig. a Luka S. (someplant), CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-13 / obs. 205753767
Kalopanax septemlobus, photographed by Lucy Cairns
fig. b Lucy Cairns, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170206033
Kalopanax septemlobus, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. c Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157757966
Kalopanax septemlobus, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. d Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157717633
Kalopanax septemlobus, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. e Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157726509
Kalopanax septemlobus, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. f Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155658074
Kalopanax septemlobus, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. g Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153677585
Kalopanax septemlobus, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. h Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153462059

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 10 botanical countries

Regions where Kalopanax septemlobus is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Kuril Is., Manchuria, Nansei-shoto, Primorye, Sakhalin China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanManchuriaPrimoryeSakhalin KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Kalopanax septemlobus, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Kuril Is. KUR
Manchuria CHM
Nansei-shoto NNS
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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 1,635 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -17.9 °C -6.3 °C 0.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.3 °C 27.2 °C 31.1 °C
Annual rainfall 788 mm 1,219 mm 1,780 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 44 mm 216 mm 300 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,635 research-grade observations of Kalopanax septemlobus 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 34 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 acerifolius Schelle
  • Acanthopanax ricinifolius (Siebold & Zucc.) Seem.
  • Acanthopanax ricinifolius var. maximowiczi (Van Houtte) C.K.Schneid.
  • Acanthopanax septemlobus (Thunb.) Koidz. ex Rehder
  • Acanthopanax septemlobus var. magnificus (Zabel) W.C.Cheng
  • Acanthopanax septemlobus var. maximowiczii (Van Houtte) W.C.Cheng
  • Acer lobelii subsp. pictum (Thunb.) Wesm.
  • Acer septemlobum Thunb.
  • Aralia maximowiczii Van Houtte
  • Brassaiopsis ricinifolia (Siebold & Zucc.) Seem.
  • Eleutherococcus septemlobus (Thunb.) Mabb.
  • Kalopanax autumnalis Koidz.
  • Kalopanax pictus f. inermis M.Kim
  • Kalopanax pictus f. maximowiczii (Van Houtte) H.Hara
  • Kalopanax pictus var. lutchuensis (Nakai) Nemoto
  • Kalopanax pictus var. magnificus (Zabel) Nakai
  • Kalopanax pictus var. maximowiczii (Van Houtte) H.Hara ex H.L.Li
  • Kalopanax ricinifolius (Siebold & Zucc.) Miq.
  • Kalopanax ricinifolius var. chinense Nakai
  • Kalopanax ricinifolius var. chinensis Nakai
  • Kalopanax ricinifolius var. lutchuensis Nakai
  • Kalopanax ricinifolius var. magnificus Zabel
  • Kalopanax ricinifolius var. maximowiczii (Van Houtte) C.K.Schneid.
  • Kalopanax ricinifolius var. typicum Nakai

and 10 more.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.