Botanical name: Zanthoxylum armatum    Family: Rutaceae (Lemon family)
Synonyms: Zanthoxylum alatum

Winged Prickly Ash is a small tree or large spiny shrub. Leaves are distinctlively trifoliolate, with the leaf-stalk winged. Leaflets are stalkless, 2-7.5 x 1-1.7 cm, elliptic to ovate-lancelike, entire to slightly toothed, sharp-tipped, base sometimes oblique. Minute yellow flowers arise in leaf axils. Flowers have 6-8 acute sepals. Petals are absent. Male flowers have 6-8 stamens, and large anthers because of which the flowers look yellow. Female flowers have 1-3 celled ovary, 3 mm in diameter, pale red, splitting into two when ripe. Seed are rounded, 3 mm in diameter, shining black. Flowering: March-April.
Medicinal uses: Prickly Ash is used in many chronic problems such a rheumatism and skin diseases; chilblains, cramp in the leg, varicose veins and varicose ulcers. It is also used for low blood pressure, fever, and inflammation. Externally it may be used as a stimulation liniment for rheumatism and fibrositis. It has a stimulating effect upon the lymphatic system, circulation and mucous membranes.

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The flower labeled Winged Prickly Ash is ...