Plant: Paper Plant / Fatsia

Fatsia japonica is a semi dense broadleaf evergreen shrub with a bold tropical look, carrying glossy dark green palmately lobed leaves up to 18 inches across on stout stems marked with prominent leaf scars. Creamy white flowers open on terminal umbels in fall like drumsticks on white stalks, followed by quarter inch globose drupes that ripen green to black in winter. It prefers part to full shade in moist, well drained soil of almost any texture or pH, and tolerates drought, heavy shade, pollution and salt spray. Foliage browns in full sun and wind, and deer will damage it. Use it as a shade garden accent, a mass planting, a screen, a patio container or a houseplant.