The small genus Oplopanax Miq. includes three species: O. horridus, which grows on the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada; O. japonicus from Japan; and O. elata from the Russian Far East and Korea.

The Far Eastern species represents a shrub of up to 1 m tall, less often 1.8 m tall, with a straight non-branching or little-branching stem up to 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter. The young current-year shoots are green, barby, and directed mostly downwards. The barbs are green, with a brownish point. The leaves, petioles, and inflorescences are also barby. The side buds are nearly totally concealed behind flattened and mutually overlapping barbs. Leaf scars are bent deflection downwards; the divergence angle is acute; and the remainder of conducting bundles number 13-14 on the average. Old shoots are gray, with almost no barbs. Oplopanax leaves are alternate and concentrated at the stem top. They are essentially shallow 5-9 palmatolobed, with configuration from round to oval; large, 15-30 cm (up to 50 cm) in diameter. The leaf tops are green, naked or with scattered barbs; below they are covered with barbs along their veins; dove-colored. The petioles are up to 25 or more centimeters long, and up to one centimeter in diameter. The flowers are small, plain, actinomorphous, four-circular, five-dimensional, with the exception of the gynecium, which consists of two carpels; the ovary is situated below. The petals are loose and yellowish-green. Oplopanax elata has male, female, and bisexual flowers. Its fruits are rounded, flattened from the sides, 7-2 mm long, juicy, bright-red, with two seeds squeezed from the sides.

The leaves unfurl in early July; the plant blossoms in June and July; the fruits ripen in mid-August; and the leaves fall-off by mid-September.

The distribution of O. elata is quite limited: in Russia, it occurs in the very south of Primorye Territory, its range represented by several isolated populations assigned to the major peaks of Sikhote-Alin, namely Oblachnaya, Snezhnaya, and several other mountains. In Khasan District, Primorye, a small isolated population was revealed on the northern slopes of black-fir broad-leaved and mixed coniferous broad-leaved forests of Sukhorechensk ridge at 150-400 m above sea level. The plant grows in groups and small growths in alpine forests (at 500-1,500 m above sea level), more often composed of fir and spruce, and among stone birch elfin woodland. Sometimes it forms small sites of pure thickets in the sub-alpin tundra belt. The climate in its growth areas is essentially monsoon, and is characterized by frequent, often lengthy rainfall and fog. Oplopanax elata requires abundant air humidity, but readily withstands low temperatures and short vegetation periods.

Oplopanax elata is a valuable medicinal plant. Among Far Eastern plants, it was one of the first to be recommended for research as a ginseng-type preparation. In 1955, the plant was already permitted for medical use. Russia's medical industry manufactures a tincture from O. elata roots, and it is recommended to stimulate the central nervous system in asthenia, depressive states, and hypertension. Its rhizomes are included in Arphasetin, an anti-diabetic preparation.

Oplopanax elata reproduction by seeds is ineffective. During twelve-month stratification, only about 5% of seeds germinate; and with gibberellin as many as 30%. In some cases, reproduction by root cutting may be used (about 50% of cuts develop into plantlets).

List of illustrations:

Fig. 9.1. Development phases of staminate (1-3) and pistillate (4-6) O. elata flowers.

Fig. 9.2. Distribution of O. elata in the Russian Far East.