Brother,I'm a herbalist in the making,one thing I keep coming across is pages will say,this herb was used for such and such for hundreds to thousands of years,but science still doesn't know if it really works. It's like what you thought the natives were experiencing placebo effects all those years.
Hi, Im from russian far east, specifically from Primorsky region. Its where panax, calopanax, eleutherococcus is originated from. Makes sense about defoliating after late frost, cause we dont usually have them. Also I havent seen one in a wild growing big, its usually twiggy leggy couple of stems not more than 2 meters high. And its rarely seen as seedlings, usually propagates itself by root.
The one he called Eleutherococcus gracilistylis is actually Eleutherococcus sieboldianus. The one before that is either E. sessiliflorus or E. divaricatus. The one with the deeply veined leaves looks like E. henryi to me.
