We measured ages of Aralia nudicaulis (Wild Sarsaparilla) ramets and site variables in a northern hardwood forest to determine how their age distributions might be affected by local environment and forest canopy disturbances. We measured ages in ten populations and at random points on two 600 m transects. Age distributions at ten sites ranged from negative exponential to uniform. Sites with many young ramets were moist and had high light intensities, conditions that may promote the establishment of new clones and recruitment of new ramets. Sites with many older ramets were dry and had low light intensities, and thus probably have fewer resources with which clones could initiate ramets. The forest- wide age distribution was a negative exponential distribution and represented a composite of different sites each of which reflected local environmental conditions and disturbance histories. Ramet recruitment may increase following any forest canopy disturbance with the greatest response after logging and the smallest after gypsy moth outbreaks.