RUTACEAE - - Citrus Family

Zanthoxylum clava-herculis Linnaeus — Southern Toothache Tree, Hercules'-club

Other common names: Sea-ash, Southern Prickly-ash, Pepperbark, Tickle-tongue.

Habitat:

Maritime forests, dunes, shell middens, shell hammocks, maritime scrub, inland (in FL and GA) in hammocks. A Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: se. VA south to FL and west to TX, AR, and OK. The compound leaves are armed with stout prickles along the rachis. The twigs are also spiny. On the larger branches and trunks, the spines become elevated on conical, pyramidal, or cylindrical corky bases up to 5 cm long and 4 cm in diameter, giving the trunk a very peculiar appearance. Many of the common names come from the numbing effect on the mouth of chewing the leaf or twig, the flavor, smell, and effect being very similar to Ctenium aromaticum, Toothache Grass. In the northern part of its distribution, it is restricted to the outer Coastal Plain, nearly entirely on barrier islands. Although normally a small tree, it can reach considerable size, up to about 60 cm DBH. In the 5 km immediately north of Buxton, Dare County, NC one can see several hundred individuals growing on open, Uniola-dominated dunes. Because of salt-pruning, the trees often have 5 times as wide a spread as they are tall. Some trees have a basal diameter of 30-40 cm, a short trunk less than a meter tall, a total height of 2-3 m, and a spread of 10 m.

Habitat information from:
Weakley, Alan S., Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, Working Draft of 21 May 2015.

The range of Zanthoxylum clava-herculis (Hercules'-club)

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2015. North American Plant Atlas. (http://bonap.net/napa). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].

The Georgia range of Zanthoxylum clava-herculis (Hercules'-club)

Zomlefer, W.B., J.R. Carter, & D.E. Giannasi. 2014 (and ongoing). The Atlas of Georgia Plants. University of Georgia Herbarium (Athens, Georgia) and Valdosta State University Herbarium (Valdosta, Georgia). Available at: http://www.georgiaherbaria.org/.