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Fatsia is a small genus of evergreen shrubs in family Araliaceae, comprising three species. It is native to southern Japan and Taiwan. Fatsia is an excellent foliage plant. It has stout, sparsely branched stems which bear large leathery, palmately lobed leaves, 20-50 cm wide, on a long petiole up to 50 cm long. When first appear, the young leaves are brown and felty, and later turning smooth and leathery. In late autumn or early winter, mature plants bear small creamy-white flowers in dense terminal compound umbels, followed by small black fruits.
Japanese Aralia (Fatsia japonica) is a shrub native to southern Japan, growing to 3-6 m tall. It is also known as Fatsi or occasionally as glossy-leaved paper plant, false castor oil plant, and fig-leaf palm. The leaves have 7-9 lobes that are edged with coarse, blunt teeth. Japanese Aralia is a popular garden shrub in areas where winters do not fall below -15°C.
Fatsia oligocarpella is a native of Bonin Islands (Ogasawara Group), an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, situated about 1,000 kilometres directly south of Tokyo, Japan. It is naturalized in Hawaii, and is quite similar to Fatsia Aralia and only differs in the lobes on the leaves being less coarsely toothed.
Fatsia polycarpa is native to Taiwan, and produces leaves that have 9-13 deep, narrow lobes, divided nearly to the base of the leaf.
Propagation is by stem cuttings and seeds. Many infestation, especially foliage diseases and also pests like red spider mites, scale insect and thrips.
