Zanthoxylum armatum
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''Zanthoxylum armatum'', also called winged prickly ash or rattan pepper in English, is a
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
in the family Rutaceae. It is an aromatic, deciduous, spiny
shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
growing to in height, endemic from
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
across to
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
and up to
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
and
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. It is one of the sources of the spice Sichuan pepper, and also used in folk medicine, essential oil production and as an ornamental garden plant.


Description

The plant grows as a woody climber, a shrub or a tree, up to in height. It is deciduous, with subsessile, opposite leaves of lanceolate, obovate or elliptic shape. Branchlets and leaves have prickles/spines. The young branchlets and inflorescence rachises are glabrous or the young branches are sparsely pubescent. The rachis of the leaves is pubescent glabrous or rust-colored and has wings to 6 mm on each side, hence it common English name, this is one of the anatomical features distinguishing it from other ''Zanthoxylum'' species. Other anatomically separating features are generally faint secondary veins of leaflet blades, especially adaxially, with 7-15 on each side of midvein; the anthers of the male flowers are yellow before anthesis; and the gynoecium of the female flowers is 1-3-carpelled. Fruit follicles are purplish-red, about 4-5mm in diameter, while the seeds are black and 3-4mm in size. The shrub flowers in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
from April to May, and fruits from August to October, in Nepal it flowers during the same months, while the fruit is available all year round. In India, flowering is from March to April.


Taxonomy

The species was described by the eminent Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1824. The plant has an accepted infraspecific, ''Zanthoxylum armatum'' var. ''ferrugineum'' (
Rehder Rehder is a German surname. Notable people with this surname include the following: * Alfred Rehder (1863–1949), German-American botanist and Harvard professor * Elke Rehder (born 1953), German artist * Harald Alfred Rehder (1907–1996), Ameri ...
& E.H.Wilson) C.C.Huang. This variety has rust-coloured pubescent young branchlets and inflorescence rachises distinguishing it from the nominative variety.


Distribution

The small tree is native to parts of East and Southeast Asia, and the north of the Indian sub-continent and naturalised in several regions. Regions where it occurs are:
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
; Nansei-shoto/Ryukyu Islands;
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
; North-Central, South-Central & Southeast China, specifically
Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
,
Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
, South
Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
,
Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
,
Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...
,
Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...
, South
Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
,
Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...
,
Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
,
Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...
,
Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...
,
Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
,
Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
, South
Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
,
Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
,
Xizang The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of Ü ...
,
Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...
, and
Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
; northern
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
;
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
;
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
;
Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
;
Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
;
Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
;
Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
;
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, including
Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
;
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
;
Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
;
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
; the Eastern and Western Himalayas; Kashmir; and
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, and possibly
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. It has been naturalised in Northeast
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
and the North
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
. The variety ''ferrugineum'' occurs in North-Central, South-Central & Southeast China, specifically in Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Yunnan.


Habitat & Ecology

''Z. armatum'' grows in many habitats below 3100m. In the
Salyan District, Nepal Salyan District ( ne, सल्यान जिल्ला), a part of Karnali Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. Salyan covers an area of with a population of 213,500 in 2001 and 241,716 in 2011. The district's administ ...
, the shrub grows in the understorey of lower altitude '' Pinus roxburghii'' forests, alongside '' Aesculus indica'' and '' Bassia latifolia'', and in higher altitude oak forests ('' Quercus incana'' & '' Q. lanuginosa''), where they associate with ''
Rhododendron arboreum ''Rhododendron arboreum'', the tree rhododendron, is an evergreen shrub or small tree with a showy display of bright red flowers. It is found in Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Thailand. It is the national flower of ...
'' & ''
Lyonia ovalifolia ''Lyonia ovalifolia'' is a species of plant in the family Ericaceae. This plant is Native to Himalaya, Nepal, China, Japan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, ...
''. Birds like the fruits and widely disseminate the plants.


Vernacular Names

''Z. armatum'' is known by a number of vernacular names. In China, the plant and its fresh berries are known as ''téngjiāo'' (), while the dried seeds are known as ''qinghuajiao'' () or ''majiao'' (). Other names include: ''Qanadlı zantoksilum'' ( Azerbaijani); Dambara in Pashto, तेजफल ''tejphal'', ''darmar'', ''tumru'', ''timroo'', ''trimal'' (
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
); ꯃꯨꯛꯊ꯭ꯔꯨꯕꯤ মুক্থ্ৰূবী ''mukthrubi'' ( Manipuri) ; तिमुर ''timur'' (
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...
) ; ''konda-kasimi'' (
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...
) ; ಜಿಮ್ಮೀ ''jimmi'' (
Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
) ; തൂമ്പണലരി (
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
); ''hokum'' ( Adi); ''ganya'' ( Angami) ; ''winged prickly ash'', ''prickly ash'', ''toothache tree'', ''yellow wood'', ''suterberry'' (
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
) ; ''tumbru'', ''tejbal'' (other names in India) ; ''arhrikreh'' (
Mizo Mizo may refer to: *Mizo people, an ethnic group native to north-eastern India, western Myanmar (Burma) and eastern Bangladesh *Mizo language, a language spoken by the Mizo people *Mizoram, a state in Northeast India *Lusei people, an ethnic group ...
) ; टिमुर ''timur'' (
Nepali Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...
); หมักก้าก, ''hui-jiao'' (
Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...
) ; Sẻn gai ( Vietnamese); 竹叶花椒, 毛竹叶花椒, ''zhu ye hua jiao'' (
Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern Standar ...
) ; ''flügelstachelige Stachelesche'' (
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
). and The variety ''ferrugineum'' has the name 毛竹叶花椒 ''mao zhu ye hua jiao'' in
Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern Standar ...
.


Uses

The fruit and seeds of the plant are used as a spice, '' Sichuan pepper'' while the bark, fruit and seeds are used in indigenous medicines in India, Nepal and Thailand. The plant is also a source of an essential oil, ''Wartara Oil'', and the shrub is also grown as an ornamental garden plant. In the Silyan district of Nepal, the parts used in medicine are harvested primarily of export to India. The plants grow in state-controlled, community-controlled and private lands, resulting in a variety of access regimes, harvesting regimes and management practices, leading to a conclusion that in general the effects of supply and demand on Non-timber forest products (NTFP) cannot be generalised, but are specific to each product and place. Extracts have been shown to inhibit the growth of Porphyromonas gingivalis – the main bacteria involved in Periodontal disease and suspected cause of
Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
.


Literature

Additional information is contained in the following: *Arana, M.D. & Oggero, A.J. (2009). Zanthoxylum armatum (Rutaceae), su presencia en Argentina Darwiniana 47: 335-338. *Balkrishna, A. (2018). Flora of Morni Hills (Research & Possibilities): 1-581. Divya Yoga Mandir Trust. *Barooah, C. & Ahmed, I. (2014). Plant diversity of Assam. A checklist of Angiosperms and Gymnosperms: 1-599. Assam science technology and environment council, India. *Chang, C.S., Kim, H. & Chang, K.S. (2014). Provisional checklist of vascular plants for the Korea peninsula flora (KPF): 1-660. DESIGNPOST. *Chowdhery, H. J. & B. M. Wadhwa. 1984. Flora of Himachal Pradesh. *Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India. 1976. The wealth of India: a dictionary of Indian raw materials and industrial products. Raw materials. 11:18-21. *Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs *Editorial Committee of the Flora of Taiwan. 1993-. Flora of Taiwan, ed. 2. *Encke, F. et al. 1993. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 14. Auflage *Facciola, S. 1990. Cornucopia, a source book of edible plants Kampong Publications. *Grierson, A.J.C. & Long, D.G. (2001). Flora of Bhutan 2: 1-1675. Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. *Hara, H. et al. 1978-1982. An enumeration of the flowering plants of Nepal. *Hartley, T. G. 1966. A revision of the Malesian species of Zanthoxylum (Rutaceae). J. Arnold Arbor. 47:211. *Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening *Iwatsuki, K., Boufford, D.E. & Ohba, H. (eds.) (1999). Flora of Japan IIc: 1-328. Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo. *Kala, C. P. et al. 2004. Prioritization of medicinal plants on the basis of available knowledge, existing practices and use value status in Uttaranchal, India. Biodivers. & Conservation 13:459. URL: http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/evolutionary+%26+developmental+biology/journal/10531 *Kress, W.J., DeFilipps, R.A., Farr, E. & Kyi, D.Y.Y. (2003). A Checklist of the Trees, Shrubs, Herbs and Climbers of Myanmar Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 45: 1-590. Smithsonian Institution. *Lê, T.C. (2005). Danh lục các loài thục vật Việt Nam hecklist of Plant Species of Vietnam3: 1-1248. Hà Noi : Nhà xu?t b?n Nông nghi?p. *McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2 American Herbal Products Association, Silver Spring, Maryland. *Nasir, E. & Ali, S.I. (eds.) (1970-1995). Flora of West Pakistan 1-131. *Nobis, M. & al. (2019). Contribution to the flora of Asian and European countries: new national and regional vascular plant records, 8 Botany Letters 166: 153-188. *Sharma, B. D. et al., eds. 1993-. Flora of India. *Walters, S. M. et al., eds. 1986-2000. European garden flora. *Wu, Z. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2008). Flora of China 11: 1-622. Science Press (Beijing) & Missouri Botanical Garden Press (St. Louis).


References


Plants for a Future entry


{{Taxonbar, from=Q6170892 armatum Flora of China Flora of Eastern Asia Flora of tropical Asia Medicinal plants of Asia Peppers Plants described in 1824 Spices