Gondwanaland Trading Company
From the Ends of the Earth, to the Beginning of Time!

Snowflake Aralia

(Trevesia palmata)
Trevesia palmata

Collecting this amazing plant was the highlight of our trip to northern Thailand last year. At the time we did not know its name but knew it was clearly in the Aralia family by its flowers and berries. We collected a particularly nice specimen of Trevesia palmata, a species indigenous to northern India, southern China, Vietnam and Thailand. In its native habitat this plant can be found growing to 30 feet tall but likely no more than 20 feet in cultivation and more often it is grown as a large shrub. It is sparsely branched with white pubescent stems and a loose broad canopy of oddly shaped leaves with small yellow flowers that are followed by 1/2 inch fruit in tight ball-like clusters. This plant prefers filtered light or part day sun and regular irrigation. It is hardy to 25-30° F , lower with shelter, making it a profoundly cool plant for the garden. The most attractive aspect of this plant is its 2 to 2 1/2 foot wide, rounded in outline, leaves of a type called pseudocompound, meaning that they look compound but actually are not. The lobes (false leaflets) are attached to a rounded plate like area at the base of the leaf that attaches to the 2 to 3 foot long prickly petioles. These lobes themselves are so intricately and deeply lobed that they individually look like pinnately compound leaves. When these leaves first emerge they are whitish grey and downy which combined with the intricate leaf shape has given rise the common name 'Snowflake Aralia or Snowflake Plant. Plants sold in quart containers.

snowflake Arailia

snowflake Arailia

$34.99