American Spikenard is a native erect perennial herbaceous forb, growing on shrubby stems to as much as 7 feet in height. Stems are much branched on older plants, without thorns, usually without hair and turning to a dark maroon color as the season progresses.

Leaves: The few, but large, compound leaves are divided into 3 main sections (sometimes 4, but rarely), each section is pinnately divided into 9 to 21 leaflets that are ovate, stalked, quite variable in size, sharply toothed and often double toothed. They taper to a pointed tip and have a heart-shaped base. Each leaflet can be 2 to 6 inches long. The veins on the leaflet underside and the leaflet stalk have fine hair.

The inflorescence is a compound spreading panicle, up to 12 inches long, composed of rounded umbels, each umbel on a separate stalk and the entire inflorescence branching up from the top of the stem and sometimes from the leaf axils. Each umbel composed of individually stalked flowers.

The flowers are 5-parted with small white to greenish triangular petals, which reflex when in flower. Sepals are green and insignificant. Flowers are bisexual with 5 stamens, with white filaments which are strongly exserted and rise opposite to the petals. The ovary is ovoid in shape and has 5 styles united for half their length. Individual flowers open at different times.

Fruit: Flowers mature to a dark purple or reddish-brown rounded fleshy drupe, up to 6 mm in size, each containing several light brown small oblong seeds, up to 3mm long. Seeds require at least 60 days of cold stratification for germination. They can be seeded in the fall for Spring germination. Root cuttings and division can also be used for more plants.

Habitat: American Spikenard can over time form colonies of plants vegetatively from a rhizomatous root system that has a thick taproot, which is aromatic and has a spicy taste. The plant also re-seeds. It is an understory shade tolerant plant that will grow in wet to mesic woodlands, thickets, and prairies. Full sun is tolerated but partial sun is best. Soils usually should be moderately rich, but well drained.

Names: The genus Aralia is considered to be a Latinization of the old French-Canadian name aralie. The species racemosa means having a flowering raceme but in this case the flowers are not directly stalked off the stem of the raceme but instead the umbels are stalked off the raceme. The author name for the plant classification - 'L.' refers to Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy.

Comparison: There are two other species of Aralia in Minnesota that resemble this - A. nudicaulis, Wild Sarsaparilla, where the inflorescence is also composed of rounded umbels, but fewer and they arise from a leafless stem that rises from the base of the plant. Thus A. nudicaulis is referred to as "false spikenard." There is also A. hispida, Bristly Sarsaparilla, where the stems are more leafy and are bristly below. There is a second subspecies of A. racemosa, ssp. bicrenata, that occurs in the SW United States.