Kalopanax Miq. (1863), in the family Araliaceae, contains 1 species in China and eastern Asia, K. septemlobus (Murray) Koidz., often called K. pictus (Thunb.) Nakai.

Description Trees to 31m, with thick spines on the stiff twigs and branches. The leaves are alternate, deciduous, palmately 5- to 7-lobed, on long, slender stalks to 50cm. The flowers are bisexual or unisexual, white or greenish, in small umbels at the tips of a large, compound inflorescence. Sepals 5, joined to form a shallow-toothed calyx. Petals usually 5, edge-to-edge in bud, spreading in the open flower. Stamens 5. Ovary inferior, with
2 cells; style 1, forked. Pollination is presumed to be by insects. The fruits are fleshy berries, usually black when ripe, containing 2 seeds.
Key Recognition Features Kalopanax is a thick-twigged tree rather like Aesculus hippocastanum (horse chesnut) but with spines and lobed leaves.

Evolution and Relationships Kalopanax is close to Eleutherococcus. The leaves vary in the depth of the lobes and in hairiness; young trees tend to have deeper lobes.

Ecology and Geography In forests from western China eastwards to Japan, Sakhalin, and the southern Kuril Islands.

Comment Kalopanax septemlobus is a fine ornamental tree, fast-growing but little-branched when young. It may be propagated easily by planting pieces of the fleshy roots.