Zanthoxylum rhetsa (Roxb.) Dc.

Shrub or tree to 26 m high; deciduous (flowers appearing before or with young leaves) or evergreen. Stems with thick conical spines; branchlets and leaves unarmed. Leaves impari-or paripinnate, 9–23-foliolate, 14–42 cm long; petiolules of lateral leaflets 1–7 mm long; terminal leaflet with petiolule 3–30 mm long; laminae equi-to inequilaterally ovate to elliptic or narrowly so, 4–13 cm long, 1.5–5 cm wide, rounded to acute or oblique at base, entire to crenate, acuminate. Inflorescences terminal or terminal and axillary, paniculate, to 15 cm long; pedicels 1.5–6 mm long, 0.15–0.5 mm wide (their size similar in fruit). Sepals basally connate, 0.5–1 mm long. Petals 1–2 mm long, white or yellowish white. Male flowers: stamens c. 3 mm long; disc ± conical, c. 0.5 mm high, inconspicuously 4-lobed or-grooved; rudimentary gynoecium 1 (rarely 2–4)-carpelled, c. 0.3 mm long. Female flowers: stamens lacking; disc columnar, c. 0.5 mm high, entire; gynoecium 1 (rarely 2)-carpelled, c. 1.5 mm long; style excentric; stigma ± flattened. Follicles single or rarely in pairs, globose, 6–7 mm diam., red or brown to black. Seeds globose, with thick sclerotesta; endosperm copious. Embryo with cotyledons ± flattened, orbicular in outline. [This description from Hartley (2013: 75–76) possibly requires revision. It includes Z. parviflorum Benth. which was treated as a synonym of Z. rhetsa in the Flora of Australia Volume 26 (Hartley 2013) but is as an accepted name in the Australian Plant Census (accessed April 2021)-Editor, 6 April 2021.]

It is a tropical plant. It grows in evergreen forests between 500-1,500 m above sea level.

The seeds, fruit skin and bark are used as flavouring. The tender leaves are eaten as a vegetable. The harvested leaves can be stored for 3 days. The young leaves are used for flavouring. The fruit are used to prepare pickles.

Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings.