Arizona Spikenard

Aralia humilis Cav. Ic. 4: 7. 1797
Aralia pubescens DC. Cat. PI. Hort. Monsp. 80. 1813. Aralia icabra Presl; DC. Prodr. 4: 258, as syn. 1830. Aralia brevifolia Marchal, Bull. Acad. Belg. II. 47: 74. 1879. Aralia chilapensis Sess6 & Moc. PI. Nov. Hisp. 48. 1888. Aralia pinnata Sesse & Moc. PI. Nov. Hisp. 48. 1888.
Shrub or small tree, up to 3 m. high, the branchlets brownish, terete, puberulent, glabrescent; leaves and inflorescences at the ends of the branchlets; leaves bipinnate or pinnate, the petiole short, usually less than 10 cm. long, with the rachises puberulent, the leaflets papyraceous, ovate to oblong, up to 8 cm. long and 5 cm. broad, acute to truncate at the base, acuminate at the apex, crenate or shallowly or coarsely serrate, short crispate-pilose on both surfaces, subsessile or the petiolules up to 3 cm. long; inflorescences terminal or subterminal, the rachis stout, the branches glabrous or short-pilose, the umbels 8-30, laxly arranged, the bractlets lanceolate, about 2 mm. long, the pedicels 15-60 per umbel, slender, up to 25 mm. long, glabrous or short-pilose; flowers 5-merous, the calyx obconic, about 1 mm. long, the lobes deltoid, acute, often callosetipped; petals 2-3 mm. long, the venation faint; filaments up to 2 mm. long, the anthers short; styles up to 2.5 mm. long, distinct nearly to the base; fruit 3-7 mm. in diameter, sulcate when young, at length black.
Type locality: Mexico.
Distribution: Southern New Mexico and Arizona to Guatemala.