Zanthoxylum Rhetsa

''Zanthoxylum rhetsa'', commonly known as Indian prickly ash, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and occurs from India east to the Philippines and south to northern Australia. It is a deciduous shrub or tree with cone-shaped spines on the stems, pinnate leaves with between nine and twenty-three leaflets, panicles of white or yellowish, male and female flowers, followed by spherical red, brown or black follicles.

Description

''Zanthoxylum rhetsa'' is a shrub or tree that sometimes grows to a height of . The plant is sometimes deciduous and has stems with thick, cone-shaped spines on the older stems. The leaves are long and pinnate, with nine to twenty three egg-shaped to elliptical leaflets. The leaflets are long and wide, the side leaflets on petiolules long and the end leaflet on a petiolule long. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets, sometimes also in leaf axils, in panicles up to long. Each flower is on a pedicel long, the four sepals joined at the base and long and the four petals white or yellowish white and long. Male flowers have stamens about long with a sterile carpel about long. Female flowers lack stamens and usually have a single carpel about long. Flowering occurs in summer and the fruit is a spherical red or brown to black follicle wide.

Taxonomy

Indian prickly ash was first formally described in 1820 by William Roxburgh who gave it the name ''Fagara rhetsa'' in his book, ''Flora Indica''. In 1824, de Candolle changed the name to ''Zanthoxylum rhetsa'' in his book ''Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis''.

Distribution and habitat

''Zanthoxylum rhetsa'' grows in rainforest and coastal thickets from sea level to an altitude of , and is found in India, east to the Philippines and south to northern Australia. It occurs in the northern Kimberley in Western Australia, the northern coastal areas of the Northern Territory, Cape York Peninsula in Queensland and on Gabba and Moa Islands in the Torres Strait.

Uses

The people of Goa, the Konkan and Kanara coasts, and Coorg use the woody pericarp of the tiny fruits as a spice, particularly with seafood dishes. The spice is known as "triphal" in Marathi and "teppal" in Konkani - both words referring to the three lobes of the pericarp. The spice contains a chemical ingredient, sanshool, a local anesthetic that causes a tingling sensation on the tongue. Sanshool is also the main principle of Sichuan Pepper, which comes from the related species Zanthoxylum bungeanum and the Japanese/Korean pepper Zanthoxylum piperitum. Many butterflies, including ''Papilio buddha'' and ''Papilio helenus'', use this as a host plant.

See also

* Sichuan pepper

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13114182

rhetsa
Medicinal plants
Plants described in 1814
Taxa named by William Roxburgh
Flora of Queensland
Rosids of Western Australia
Flora of India (region)
Flora of Southeast Asia