Oplopanax horridus
Devil’s Club
submitted by Parker
Devil’s Club with thorns (Photo by Michelle)
Devil’s club is a leafy plant found all over BC, especially in moist forests and along streams. It has broad, maple-shaped leaves, a long woody stem, and is covered in small straight thorns from the base of its stem, to the underside of its leaves. It grows approximately two meters tall, but plants reaching up over five meters have been found. It produces a triangular cluster of small white flowers, which transform into bright red berries which are inedible to humans.
Like all thorny plants, such as wild rosebushes and blackberry brambles, devil’s club is not well loved by those traversing the backcountry. Despite this however, devil’s club is regarded as a powerful medicinal plant by First Nations groups the entire breadth of the BC coast. The inner bark, with the thorns scrapped off, is brewed into a tea, and is believed to help diabetes and tuberculosis. It is also used as a topical treatment for sores. It is also believed to have powerful spiritual properties and is sometimes hung over doorways to ward off evil. However each First Nation’s group on the BC coast has their own use for the plant, and no two groups use it entirely the same way.
Large maple-shaped leaves of the Devil’s Club (Photo by Parker)
into the field 