The Castor aralia (Kalopanax pictus) belongs to Araliaceae (the Ginseng family). It is a tall deciduous tree that is native all over Japan, the Korean Peninsula, China and the Sakhalin. This tree grows in hillsides or mountains and can reach about 25 m in height. The barks are grayish-white and furrowed longitudially when old. The branches have spines. The leaves are round, devided into 5-9 lobes palmately and crowded at the terminal branches. The umbels are borne on the terminal and bloom small yellowish-green flowers from July to August. They have conspicuous magenta anthers. The fruits are berries and ripen in black in fall. The young shoots are used for wild vegetable, and the timbers are used for furnitures. In Chinese, it is called "刺楸" (ci qiu).