Description
Zanthoxylum – Prickly-ash – Hercules Club –
There are about 250 broadly rounded to upright, spiny, deciduous or evergreen trees and shrubs, which make up this genus. They naturally occur in forest from Asia, Australia North to South America, and Africa, usually in warmer regions. They have aromatic bark, and are grown for their alternate, usually pinnate leaves, and their fruits, which split to reveal often black seeds. They bear cymes or panicles of small, cup shaped. Green or yellowish green flowers from spring to summer, individual plants may be dioeciuos, or produce both unisexual and bisexual flowers. Suitable for use in a shrub border or as a specimen tree.
Grow in fertile, moist but well drained soil in full sun or light, dappled shade.
Prone to powdery mildew, rust, and a few leaf spots.
Z. simulans – Prickly Ash – Flatspine Prickly-ash – This spreading, deciduous shrub or small tree with broad spines, is form China, Japan, and Taiwan, and grows 15-20’ feet tall and wide. It produces pinnate leaves, to 8” long composed of 7 to 11 egg to oblong shaped, saw toothed, glossy, dark green leaflets. The leaves turn yellow to reddish yellow in autumn. In early summer, bears tiny, cup shaped, green flowers in cymes 2” across, followed by showy, spherical, warty red fruit, ¼” across.
Zones 6-9
