Zanthoxylum avicennae Dc.

Trees to 15 m tall, deciduous. Branchlets and leaves glabrous, with prickles. Leaves 11-21-foliolate; rachis winged; leaflet blades opposite or rarely subopposite, obliquely ovate, rhomboidal, obovate, or falcate, 2.5-7 × 1-3 cm, oil glands visible on fresh leaves or inconspicuous, margin entire or apically crenate, apex mucronate to blunt. Inflorescences terminal, many flowered; rachis purplish red. Flowers 5-merous. Pedicel purplish red. Perianth in 2 series. Sepals green, broadly ovate. Petals yellowish white, ca. 2.5 mm. Male flowers: stamens 5; rudimentary gynoecium disciform, 2-lobed. Female flowers: carpels 2(or 3); staminodes small. Fruit pedicel 3-6 mm; follicles pale purplish red, 4-5 mm in diam., oil glands numerous, large, and slightly protruding, apex not beaked. Seeds 3.5-4.5 mm in diam. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Oct-Dec.

A tropical plant. It grows in mountainous provinces. It is a light demanding tree. It is often in bushy savannah below 1500 m altitude. It is drought tolerant. It is smaller in dry open mountainous regions. In Yunnan.

The seed have a sweet peppery taste. The leaves and fruit are used to flavour food.

Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings.