Species
+

Aralia racemosa L.

American spikenard, American spikenard, American-Spikenard, Indianroot

Climate known 61 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Aralia racemosa, with common names American spikenard, small spikenard, Indian root, spice berry, spignet, life-of-man, petty morel, is an ornamental plant in the family Araliaceae native to the United States and Canada. It is a herbaceous plant, about 1 to 2 m tall, which grows in shady areas. Its native range includes most of the eastern United States.

Text from Wikipedia, “Aralia racemosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Aralia

Aralia, or spikenard, is a genus of the family Araliaceae, consisting of 68 accepted species of deciduous or evergreen trees, shrubs, and rhizomatous herbaceous perennials. The genus is native to Asia and the Americas, with most species occurring in mountain woodlands. Aralia plants vary in size, with some herbaceous species only reaching 50 centimetres (20 in) tall, while some are trees growing to 20 metres (66 ft) tall.

Text from Wikipedia, “Aralia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araliaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia +36
Wild records
1867 in range· 506 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1120mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 112 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1120 mm a year, wettest June at 112 mm, driest February at 69 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -25.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aralia racemosa f. foliosa (Vict. & J.Rousseau) Scoggan; Aralia racemosa f. racemosa; Aralia racemosa subsp. racemosa; Aralia racemosa var. foliosa Vict. & J.Rousseau.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (811 mm of 1120 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 27.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1120 mm a year, wettest June at 112 mm, driest February at 69 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1120 mm a year at the habitat, 811 mm of it April to November. Wettest month June at 112 mm, driest February at 69 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 839 mm to 1414 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -25.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -25.0 °C, the absolute minimum -38.5 °C, about 141 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -11.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -15.2 °C to -3.6 °C), warmest day 25.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -25.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -3 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -11 °C in Jan to 17 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1120 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1408 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -38.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost31.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-38.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 9–39RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1408 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-3 / -6–5-1 / -4–75 / 1–1212 / 8–1719 / 16–2223 / 21–2726 / 23–2925 / 23–2820 / 18–2414 / 11–187 / 4–120 / -3–6
Night °C-11 / -15–-4-10 / -13–-3-5 / -8–12 / -1–68 / 6–1214 / 12–1717 / 15–2016 / 14–1913 / 10–156 / 4–90 / -3–4-7 / -11–-1
Rain mm76 / 27–10369 / 27–10076 / 45–11591 / 68–118102 / 81–130112 / 86–135111 / 85–140104 / 84–127101 / 85–12496 / 70–12894 / 54–12388 / 36–118
DLI12 / 10–1418 / 17–2026 / 24–2732 / 30–3437 / 35–3839 / 37–4138 / 37–4133 / 32–3526 / 24–2918 / 16–2211 / 9–159 / 8–12
RH %63 / 58–6660 / 57–6457 / 56–6056 / 54–5757 / 55–5959 / 57–6159 / 58–6260 / 58–6260 / 58–6260 / 57–6261 / 58–6362 / 58–66

Each figure is the median across the 1408 grid cells holding the 1700 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 905:2134 (44.725, -73.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -38.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -25.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1408 distinct grid cells holding the 1700 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 905:2134 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.50_-73.125, lapse-corrected -209 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 37 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeManitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia· introduced: Great Britain
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker44.396, -72.439 · in the densest population, 646 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1867 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 506 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 140 km away. 15 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 167 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1867 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aralia racemosaAralia racemosaAralia racemosaAralia racemosaAralia racemosaAralia racemosaAralia racemosaAralia racemosa

Photographs: (c) Alec McClay, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Claire, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Aralia racemosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Exotic earthworm effects on hardwood forest floor, nutrient availability and native plants: a mesocosm study
Cindy M. Hale, Lee E. Frelich, Peter B. Reich, John Pastor (2007) · Oecologia
An Overview of Herbal Nutraceuticals, Their Extraction, Formulation, Therapeutic Effects and Potential Toxicity
Vaishnavi Bommakanti, Amruthamol Puthenparambil Ajikumar, Chelssa Sivi, Geethika Prakash (2023) · Separations
Phylogeny and biogeography of Aralia sect. Aralia (Araliaceae)
Jun Wen, Suhua Shi, Robert K. Jansen, Elizabeth A. Zimmer (1998) · American Journal of Botany
SP-11 Glacial and Vegetational History of Northeastern Minnesota
Herbert E. Wright, William A. Watts, Saskia Jelgersma, J C WADDINGTON (1969) · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota)
Revised checklist of New York State plants
Richard S. Mitchell, Richard S. Mitchell, Gordon C. Tucker (1997) · Bulletin - New York State Museum
Verticilliumhadromycosis
B. A. Rudolph (1931) · Hilgardia
Chromosomal evolution in Araliaceae and close relatives
Ting‐Shuang Yi, Porter P. Lowry, Gregory M. Plunkett, Jun Wen (2004) · Taxon
A checklist of New York State plants
Richard S. Mitchell (1986) · Bulletin - New York State Museum
Wild Edible Plant Resources Used by the Mizos of Mizoram, India
Amit Kar, Dipsikha Bora, S. Borthakur, Naba Kumar Goswami (2013) · Kathmandu University Journal of Science Engineering and Technology
Ungulate winter habitat selection as a driver of herbaceous-layer heterogeneity in northern temperate forests
Nathan R. Jensen, Christopher R. Webster, Jill C. Witt, J. Grant (2011) · Ecosphere

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Aralia 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.