broadleaf prickly-ash

Photo: Dalgial — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 6 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Citrus as familiar. ⚠ Zanthoxylum = a numbing SPICE (husks), not a fruit.

Hardiness

Zone 6–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Winter (citrus)

Mature size

Shrub 1–3 m; containerable

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

6.0–6.5 (slightly acid)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

China, Japan and Korea, on hillsides and forest margins.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

20–40 cm/year — medium.

Spacing

250 cm (98 in) apart — about 6.3 m² (67 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate and pinnate with numerous small narrow leaflets — commonly 11–21, finer and more feathery than its relatives — and single prickles set alternately rather than in pairs along the stem.

Root system

Shallow and strongly suckering, throwing root shoots that build a thorny thicket over time — useful for a stock-proof hedge, awkward in a border.

Fruit description

Small follicles about 4–5 mm across, ripening green-flushed to reddish and splitting to release a black seed; the husk gives a milder, distinctly greener and more lemony pepper than Z. simulans.

Propagation

Seed germinates poorly once dried, so sow fresh in autumn, or give 2–3 months cold stratification. Semi-ripe cuttings in midsummer with bottom heat, or root cuttings taken in late winter, are both quicker and keep a known sex.

Pollination

⚠ Dioecious — separate male and female plants, so one alone bears nothing. Plant a known pair if the husks are the point. Insect-pollinated.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.