Devil's Club
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| iDevil's club | ||||||||||||||
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 Young leaves in spring
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| Oplopanax horridus (Sm.) Miq. |
Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus, Araliaceae) is a large-leaved spiny shrub native to the Pacific Northwest coastal forests of North America. Also known as Devil's Walking Stick, it grows to 1-1.5 m tall, with the erect stems covered in short, stout spines. The leaves are spirally arranged on the stems, simple, palmately lobed with 5-13 lobes, 20-40 cm across. The flowers are produced in dense umbels 10-20 cm diameter, each flower small, with five greenish-white petals. The fruit is a small red drupe 4-7 mm diameter.
The spines contain a poison that causes a nasty rash. The fruit is also poisonous and shouldn't be eaten.
[edit] Habitat
This species usually grows in rich moist forest where mature specimens of western red cedar and western hemlock dominate the overstory. Other tree species that shade Devil's Club plants near the coast include Douglas-fir, grand fir, Pacific silver fir, Sitka spruce, mountain hemlock, yellow cedar, black cottonwood, bigleaf maple, and red alder. Some inland populations occur under Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir associations. An outlier population occurs under balsam poplar and white spruce at Liard Hot Springs, deep in the boreal forest zone of British Columbia near the boundary with the Northwest Territories. Far to the east, other populations occur on several islands in Lake Superior.
[edit] Uses
The Native Americans of the region regarded it as a sacred plant, using it for both ritual and herbal medicine.
To prepare devil's club tea, harvest lengths of the grey prickly stalk. Using a knife, scrape the stalk to remove the spines and bark to expose the green layer in between the wood and the bark. This greenery is where the medicine is, although it will not harm your drink if you get pieces of the bark or the wood in it - it will merely alter the taste. Using the knife, cut the green layer off and let dry. Steep for two to three hours for a light tea, or for a darker tea, for as long as 24 hours. Strong devil's club tea has been used as an emergency stimulant in Alaska. It seems to work well but foul taste pretty well precludes recreational experminatation or use.
Burning devil's club on a fire as an incense is also believed to chase away evil spirits.
