1 Plant a woody vine; [subfamily Aralioideae; tribe Schefflereae]

1 Plant an herb, shrub, or tree.

  2 Leaves simple, peltate or cordate, roundish (if lobed, with 3-5 rounded lobes), 0.3-10 cm wide; rhizomatous, creeping herbs; [subfamily Hydrocotyloideae]

  2 Leaves either compound with 3-many leaflets or simple and then with 5-15 pointed lobes, > 10 cm wide; herbs, shrubs, or trees.

    3 Leaves simple, palmately-lobed; [subfamily Aralioideae; tribe Schefflereae].

      4 Leaves 7-15-lobed (the lobes themselves either sublobed or not); robust herb to shrub, the branches unarmed.

        5 Leaves 7-9-lobed (the lobes not sublobed); ovary 5- or 10-carpellate; leaf blades glabrous beneath at maturity

        5 Leaves 9-15-lobed (some of the lobes sublobed); ovary 2-carpellate; leaf blades densely pubescent beneath at maturity

    3 Leaves compound.

          6 Leaves 2-3× compound, at least the final order of division pinnate; leaves either 1 from a subterranean stem or 2-many, alternate on an aboveground stem; inflorescence compound, consisting of (2-) 3-many umbels, either on a separate peduncle from the rhizome or in a terminal panicle or raceme of umbels; fruit purple or black; [subfamily Aralioideae; tribe Aralieae]

          6 Leaves 1× palmately compound, leaflets 3-7; leaves 3-5 in a whorl at the summit of the stem (Panax) or many, clustered on spur shoots (Eleutherococcus); inflorescence of a single, simple umbel borne terminally on the stem; fruit red to yellow (Panax) or black (Eleutherococcus).

             7 Plant a shrub, with prickles; fruit black; [subfamily Aralioideae; tribe Schefflereae]

             7 Plant an herb, lacking prickles; fruit red or yellowish-green; [subfamily Aralioideae; tribe Aralieae].

               8 Leaflets 3 (-5), sessile or subsessile, the petiolules 0-3 mm long; larger leaflets 4-8 cm long, 0.5-2.5 cm wide, averaging about 2.5× as long as wide, the apex obtuse to acute; fruit yellow-green when ripe, longitudinally winged and ribbed in ×-section; petals white (rarely tinged with pink); inflorescence nodding in bud; underground storage organ a spherical tuber

               8 Leaflets (3-) 5, petiolulate, the petiolules (7-) 10-25 mm long; larger leaflets 6-15 cm long, 3.5-7 cm wide, averaging about 1.8× as long as wide, the apex acuminate; fruit bright red when ripe, smoothly elliptical in ×-section; petals light green; inflorescence erect in bud; underground storage organ an elongate root, this vertical or horizontal, and sometimes branched