Aralia californica, known by the common name elk clover though not actually a clover, is a large herb in the family Araliaceae, the only member of the ginseng family native to California and southwestern Oregon. It is also called California aralia and California spikenard.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Aralia californica has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens4
Marker genes5
GenBank sequences6
eDNA detections2
Countries1
The DNA barcodea real sequence read deposited for this species
Aralia californica nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer ITS DNA
Marker genes sequenced
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★matK1★rbcL1★rbcLa★ITS4★ITS2
plant barcodefungal barcode
06Genome at a glanceCCDB
The complete instruction manualAralia californica carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
DNA clock origin24 Ma TimeTree
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
DNA clock origin
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type3 911 records
Wild obs. + sensor3 357
Museum / vouchered541
Cultivated / captive13
Origin
Native1
Introduced9
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO4 564 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy86% within 1 km
≤100 m 1 920≤1 km 380≤10 km 253>10 km 106
2 659 georeferenced · 698 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor3 357
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy59% within 1 km
≤100 m 20≤1 km 178≤10 km 130>10 km 8
336 georeferenced · 205 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence541
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Coordinate accuracy10% within 1 km
≤1 km 1≤10 km 9
10 georeferenced · 3 without coordinates
Open the mapnot free-living13
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions36 of 53 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Corvallis, US
60
Angwin, US
45
Claremont, US
45
Arcata, US
35
Santa Barbara, US
29
Riverside, US
27
Davis, US
25
San Luis Obispo, US
24
DOI/NPS, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Sitelocation not on record
24
CASlocation not on record
13
San Diego, US
13
Bronx, US
12
Canadian Department of Agriculturelocation not on record
12
WTUlocation not on record
11
US
9
Pullman, US
8
Saint Louis, US
7
San Jose, US
6
SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record
6
San Francisco, US
6
Santa Cruz, US
4
University of Stellenboschlocation not on record
4
Irvine, US
4
Ashland, US
3
HJAEFlocation not on record
3
Xiamen, CN
3
Clemson, US
3
Severin-McDaniel Insect Collectionlocation not on record
2
LDlocation not on record
2
Long Beach, US
2
Wuzhou, CN
2
Tacoma, US
2
Kew, GB
2
Moscow, US
1
Portland, US
1
Columbia, US
1
GB
1
Bureau of Land Management, Medford District Officelocation not on record
1
Phoenix, US
1
Los Angeles, US
1
Nantes Culture Collectionlocation not on record
1
Philadelphia, US
1
EL PASO, US
1
PHlocation not on record
1
DOI/NPS, Greenbelt Parklocation not on record
1
Mississippi State, US
1
KNFSClocation not on record
1
Cincinnati, US
1
Edinburgh, GB
1
STNFlocation not on record
1
Beijing, CN
1
Institut und Museum fuer Geologie und Palaeontologielocation not on record
1
San Diego Natural History Museum, Herbariumlocation not on record
1
53 institutions · 473 of 541 vouchered records shown · 68 without an institution code
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
09Environmental DNA2 detections
Where the DNA of Aralia californica was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found2
Studies independent surveys1
Countries1
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 2 detections have coordinates
Open the map1 country0
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median22.2 °C 22.2–22.2
Seasonal swing summer↔winter14.1 °C
Max temp (day)30.1 °C
Min temp (night)16.0 °C
Precipitation6.00 mm/mo
Air humidity50.5 %
Moisture balance-166 mm/mo
Vapour deficit1,324 Pa
Wind speed1.30 m/s
Cloud cover12.6 %
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 1 detection point · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation6 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility3 911 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI2 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics4 specimens↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinesequences↗
GRIN TaxonomyUSDA-ARSdistribution & uses↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
CCDBChromosome Counts DB · Tel Aviv U.genome & karyotype↗
PloiDBPloidy Databasegenome & karyotype
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗