Summary
The wood of Aralidium pinnatifidium Miq. is diffuse‐porous with the vessels mainly in groups; the perforation plates exclusively scalariform with numerous bars; the parenchyma paratracheal; the rays multiseriate heterogeneous; and the fibres with simple pits and frequently septate. On balance, the wood is, therefore, more like that of the Araliaceae than of the Cornaceae.
A number of differences have been recorded between the secondary xylem in the Araliaceae and the Cornaceae (in the broad sense) (Hoar, 1915; Metcalfe and Chalk, 1957). It was hoped, therefore, that an investigation of the wood anatomy of Aralidium would provide evidence of the relationships of that genus.