Plant: Paper Plant / Fatsia
Paper Plant / Fatsia · Fatsia japonica
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
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.
- Full Shade
- Grows to 19.5 ft tall and 6 ft wide
- Blooms in fall
- Hardy in USDA zones 7b-10b
- Evergreen foliage
Plant description
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.
- Flowers
- Creamy white flowers on terminal umbels resemble drumsticks on a white stalk. The umbel is usually twice compound, 1 to 1.25 inches across, and blooms in fall.
- Foliage
- Deeply palmately lobed leaves with 7 to 11 oblong elliptic, acuminate, serrate lobes, cordate at the base, thick, glossy and dark green, the blade up to 18 inches across.
- Fruit
- Fleshy black drupes, green turning to black and about a quarter inch across, rarely occur indoors.
- Bark & stems
- Stems are stout and coarse with prominent leaf scars; the bark is smooth and light brown.
- Light
- Deep Shade, Dappled/Filtered Light
- Native range
- South Korea and Japan to the Nansei-shoto islands
