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Zanthoxylum ailanthoides
Also called Japanese Prickly Ash
Zanthoxylum ailanthoides is a spiny, deciduous Asian tree in the citrus family whose aromatic, peppery fruit is used as a local spice, and its young leaves are eaten in Taiwan. It is mainly a forest tree grown for its fruit and as a source of pepper-like flavor rather than a common ornamental.
Zanthoxylum ailanthoides, also called ailanthus-like prickly ash, (Chinese: 椿叶花椒; pinyin: chun ye hua jiao, lit. "Ailanthus-leaved pepper", Chinese: 越椒; pinyin: yue-jiao; Wade–Giles: yüeh-chiao, lit. "Yue pepper", 食茱萸 shi zhu yu, lit. "edible shān zhū yú"; Japanese: カラスザンショウ, からすのさんしょう karasu-zanshō, karasu-no-sanshō, lit. "crow prickly ash") is an Asiatic plant of the prickly-ash genus Zanthoxylum, natively occurring in forest-covered parts of southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and Japan from Honshu southward. The piquant fruit serves as a local substitute for the ordinary red-pepper in China before the Columbian exchange. In Taiwan, the young leaves are used in cuisines.
Though some refer to the species as "Japanese prickly-ash", that name is confusing since it is sometimes applied to the sanshō which is Z. piperitum. Z.
Zanthoxylum acanthopodium · Common pricklyash · Winged Prickly Ash · Climbing Orange · Sichuan Pepper · Hercules' club · Zanthoxylum coco · African Satinwood · Zanthoxylum laetum · Chopi · Cape Yellowwood · Mastic Leaf Prickly Ash
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Zanthoxylum ailanthoides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
