General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Shrub
Tree
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun to Partial Shade
Water Preferences: Mesic
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 7b -15 °C (5 °F) to -12.2 °C (10 °F)
Plant Height: 8 to 12 feet (2.4-3.7m)
Plant Spread: 4 to 8 feet (1.2-2.4m)
Leaves: Evergreen
Other: fuzzy
Fruit: Showy
Flowers: Showy
Flower Color: White
Flower Time: Late summer or early fall
Underground structures: Rhizome
Resistances: Deer Resistant
Rabbit Resistant
Toxicity: Other: hairs can be a mild irritant to eyes or skin
Propagation: Other methods: Other: Root suckers
Pollinators: Bees

Image
Common names
  • Rice Paper Plant
  • Rice Paper Tree
Botanical names
  • Accepted: Tetrapanax papyrifer
  • Synonym: Tetrapanax papyriferus
  • Synonym: Aralia papyrifera
  • Synonym: Tetrapanax papyriferum

Photo Gallery
Location: Botanical garden of Crete
Location: MS. Gulf Coast 
Date: 2024-01-11
Bees buzzing buds!
Location: in my garden
Date: 07-26-2020
Tetrapanax papyrifer
Location: Christiansberg Botanical Garden. Germany.
Date: 2023-06-14
Location: in my living room
Date: 2019-07-24
Tetrapanax papyrifer
Location: San Antonio Botanical Garden, San Antonio, Texas
Date: 2022-04-04
Location: Botanical garden of Crete
Location: Hortus Botanicus Leiden
Date: 2022-03-26
Location: Botanical Garden Cologne (Germany)
Location: Botanical Garden Cologne (Germany)
Location: At a local nursery 
Date: 2023-06-07
Location: Christiansberg Botanical Garden. Germany.
Date: 2023-06-14
Location: in my living room
Date: 2019-07-24
Tetrapanax papyrifer
Location: Botanical garden of Crete
Date: 2022-06-01
Location: In my garden in Oklahoma City, OK
Date: August, 2019
Tetrapanax papyrifer newly emerging leaves in Oklahoma City, OK
Location: At a local nursery 
Date: 2023-06-07
Location: in my shade garden
Date: 2020
Tetrapanax papyrifer
Location: In my garden in Oklahoma City, OK
Date: August, 2019
Tetrapanax papyrifer in a private Oklahoma City, OK garden
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Zoo Entrance
Date: July, 2016
Tetrapanax papyrifer at the Oklahoma City Zoo

Photo courtesy of Joy Creek Nursery
  • Uploaded by Joy
Photo by Watersprite
Location: z6a, Smith College Botanical Garden
Date: 2012-10-14
This specimen is ~10' tall, the one to the left was several feet
Location: z6a, Smith College Botanical Garden
Date: 2012-10-14
Location: z6a, Smith College Botanical Garden
Date: 2012-10-14
Photo by Watersprite
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Comments:
  • Posted by jathton (Oklahoma City, OK - Zone 7a) on Sep 27, 2019 8:35 PM concerning plant:
    Both the Plants Database for this organization and the PlantFinder database for the Missouri Botanical Garden in Saint Louis list the hardiness range for Chinese Rice Paper Plant as 8A and 8 respectively.
    I just want to bring to your attention the fact that I have been successfully growing this plant in zone 7A for the past nineteen years. It decidedly dies to the ground each winter, but it reliably returns each spring. The maximum height it has achieved in zone 7A has been, to the best of my knowledge, between six and seven feet. In all these years I have yet to see it flower. But it makes an impressive and highly attractive foliage plant. In addition to the gardens I have grown it in... it has also been successfully grown in the AABGA garden that comprises part of our municipal zoo.

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