Devil’s Club

Devil’s Club, also called Devil’s Walking Stick, is most likely found in areas that are moist and shady. A shrub and a member of the Araliaceae Family, it grows by Kiosk 06.  Pilchuck Learning Center’s sponsored Western Washington State University SAM Project extinction possibility is slight; abundant, found only in a small area of Cascadia.  In the Gardens look for several mature specimens by the wooden bear statutes; native black bears forage on the Devil’s Club’s red berries, but for humans they are considered poisonous.

http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Oplopanax+horridus
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Oplopanax horridus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oplopanax_horridus
https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=OPHO
http://www.burkemuseum.org/research-and-collections/botany-and-herbarium/collections/database/results.php?Genus=Oplopanax&Species=horridus&SourcePage=search.php&IncludeSynonyms=Y&SortBy=DESC&SortOrder=Year

The red berries of the Devil’s Club should be:

highly regarded
eaten in small amounts
avoided as poisonous

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