American Prickly Ash

Synonyms

Common Prickly Ash, Lime Prickly Ash, Northern Prickly Ash, Toothache (sec. Cottin 2002)

Cultivar or taxon

Zanthoxylum americanum Mill. (sec. Wunderlin and Hansen 2003; sensu Bayer et al. 2009)

Description

Crown compact or dense or open, not weeping. First-year twig surface pubescent; second- or third-year twig surface striate; thorns straight; prickles absent or not persistent. Petiole pubescent, length medium, wings absent. Leaflets five to seven or greater than seven, margin entire or crenate/crenulate, rachis wings absent, shade leaflet blades flat or weakly conduplicate, sun leaflet blades flat or weakly conduplicate. Scent of crushed leaflets spicy or peppery. Fruit broader than long, or as broad as long, or longer than broad; rind black (by misinterpretation) or red or pink; rind texture slightly rough (4-5); firmness papery; navel absent; flesh yellow.

Notes

In the citrus-growing regions of the continental United States, Zanthoxylum americanum is only known from Florida. It is not known from Arizona, California, or Texas. The species is considered rare in Florida and in the wild is associated with rocky hammocks in Gadsden, Jackson, and Levy counties (Wunderlin and Hansen 2003). Whereas most species of Zanthoxylum in Florida exhibit flowers in terminal panicles, Z. americanum is one of only two species bearing flowers in reduced axillary clusters. In contrast to the only other Zanthoxylum species sharing this character, Z. fagara, Z. americanum lacks winged petioles and rachises. Zanthoxylum fagara exhibits conspicuously winged petioles and rachises, in addition to much blunter leaflet apices. See the genus-level fact sheet for keys to Zanthoxylum in the continental United States.

References

Bayer, R.J., D.J. Mabberley, C. Morton, C.H. Miller, I.K. Sharma, B.E. Pfeil, S. Rich, R. Hitchcock, and S. Sykes. 2009. A molecular phylogeny of the orange subfamily (Rutaceae: Aurantioideae) using nine cpDNA sequences. American Journal of Botany 96: 668–685.

Cottin, R. 2002. Citrus of the World: A citrus directory. Version 2.0. France: SRA INRA-CIRAD.

Wunderlin, R.P. and B.F. Hansen. 2003. Guide to the vascular plants of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville. 787 pp.

Resources

Search for this cultivar in NCBI Entrez or NCBI Nucleotide