What is this plant? (False Aralia)

By

bjames

This is definitely a "false Aralia". It is not winter hardy in zone 5 or colder.

By Sandra Bridgeman (Guest Post)

This is definitely a "false aralia". We had a huge full one of these on our terrace one year. As it does, look SO much like marijuana, we came home one evening to find that someone had removed ALL the leaves from our beautiful huge plant. I hope whomever it was, didn't get sick from smoking what they thought was such a great find.

By Rustie Rock (Guest Post)

It looks like a type of flowering plant related to the Hawaiian Lei flower. In the winter it will drop all the leaves, and just look like sticks in the ground. When it gets a bit warmer you will notice, tiny leaves, start to grow out of the end of the branches. They smell sweet like the islands where they come from.

By

kamuhl

Gosh I thought it was a Sambucca, that is an elderberry plant. My daughter gave me a cutting from a member the the garden club here in Tampa. It looks like the varieties I have seen in the plant catalog. I could be wrong I am not a botanist but I do read lots of plant books and catalogs.

By Paula Jo Carr Mebane, NC (Guest Post)

Looks like an "aralia plant" a copy cat of what marijuana looks like I am told.

By Georgette (Guest Post)

I think it is called a "False Aralia" Looks like a pot plant but it's not!

By Eeyore1950 (Guest Post)

Yep. False Aralia. We used to have one where I worked. The sherrif came by one day and did a double take.

By

lavonneann

Funny story. Many years ago my sister's ( a sheltered widow) son had to go out of state for his job. He asked his mom to care for his plant while he was gone. She did this faithfully - running it outside to the sun and back in when the weather was nasty. Imagine her surprise when someone asked her why she was growing pot! We never allowed her to forget that.
P.S. it looked like your plant.

By

gardendiva

Aralia elegantissima or False Aralia for the common name

By

jess

I am pretty sure it is a false aralia (although I have never seen a true one :) )

We had one given to us years ago by a teacher who couldn't keep in in her classroom because of the aforementioned similarity.

By Karen (Guest Post)

LOL! It looks like Marijuana!!

By carol (Guest Post)

This looks like an unbrella plant to me just kind of punie. carol

By

perfume and powder

Looks like an aralia. Not sure about that spelling.