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{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| name = ''Fatsia japonica''
| image = Fatsia japonica0.jpg
| image_width = 240px
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = [[Dicotyledon|Magnoliopsida]]
| ordo = [[Apiales]]
| familia = [[Araliaceae]]
| genus = ''[[Fatsia]]''
| species = '''''F. japonica'''''
| binomial = ''Fatsia japonica''
| binomial_authority = ([[Carl Peter Thunberg|Thunb.]]) [[Decne.]] & [[Planch.]]
}}

'''''Fatsia japonica''''' ('''Fatsi''' or '''Japanese Aralia'''; [[synonymy|syn.]] ''Aralia japonica'' Thunb., ''A. sieboldii'' Hort. ex [[K.Koch]]) is a species of ''[[Fatsia]]'', native to southern [[Japan]].

It is an [[evergreen]] [[shrub]] growing to 3-6 m tall, with stout, sparsely branched stems. The [[leaf|leaves]] are spirally-arranged, large, 20-50 cm in width and on a petiole up to 50 cm long, leathery, palmately lobed, with 7-9 broad lobes, divided to half or two-thirds of the way to the base of the leaf; the lobes are edged with coarse, blunt teeth. The [[flower]]s are small, white, borne in dense terminal compound [[umbel]]s in late autumn or early winter, followed by small black [[fruit]].

The name "Fatsi" is older Japanese, meaning 'eight' (in present-day Japanese ''hachi''), referring to the eight lobes. The name "Japanese Aralia" is due to the genus formerly being classified within a broader interpretation of the related genus ''[[Aralia]]'' in the past.

===Cultivation and uses===
It is commonly grown as an [[ornamental plant]] in warm temperate regions where winters do not fall below about -15°C.

==References==
*Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan.
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/316.shtml BBC Gardening: ''Fatsia japonica'']

<gallery>
Image:Fatsia Japonica 01 Helen Fowler.jpg|Fruiting body
Image:Fatsia japonica.jpg|A small ''Fatsia japonica'' leaf
Image:Fatsia japonica1.jpg|Close-up of flower umbel
</gallery>

[[Category:Araliaceae]]
[[Category:Flora of Japan]]
{{Apiales-stub}}
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