The Hercules club (Aralia elata) belongs to Araliaceae (the Ginseng family). It is a semi-tall deciduous tree that is native to Japan, as well as the Korean Peninsula, northeastern China and eastern Siberia. This tree grows in sunny mountains and fields and can reach about 5 m in height. The leaves are large, alternate and crowd at the end of twigs. The large panicle is borne on the stem apices and the small white flowers bloom from August to September.The young shoots are a typical wild vegetable along with "udo". The Japanese name is said to be a transposition from "taro-no-ki" or compared to "taraki" (Talipot palm), a member of the Palm family, on whose leaves wounds were made to write sutras. The Chinese name is "楤木" (cong mu).
The 25th to 28th photos show the horticultural variety "Shinkoma". It is a dark green, high-yielding variety with few thorns called "Medara", which was selected for breeding and dissemination by the Yatsugatake Branch of the Yamanashi Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station.