Zanthoxylum ovalifolium



Zanthoxylum ovalifolium, commonly known as thorny yellowwood, oval-leaf yellow wood or little yellowwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae. It is a shrub or tree usually with trifoliate leaves, white, male and female flowers arranged in panicles in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets and red, purple or brown follicles.

Description
Zanthoxylum ovalifolium is a shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of 8 m and often has prickles on its branchlets and thick, conical spines on its older stems. It has trifoliate leaves 75–210 mm long, often with simple leaves on the same twig. The leaflets are elliptical to egg-shaped with the lower end towards the base, 60–180 mm long, 25–70 mm wide and sessile, the end leaflet sometimes on a petiolule up to 5 mm long. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils, on the ends of branchlets, or both, in panicles up to 120 mm long, each flower on a pedicel 2.5–3 mm long. The four sepals are 0.5–1 mm long and the four petals white and about 2.5 mm long. Male flowers have four stamens 2.5–3 mm long with a sterile, narrow oval carpel about 0.5 mm high. Female flowers have a single carpel 1.5–2 mm long, and sometimes rudimentary stamens. Flowering occurs in summer and the fruit is a spherical red, purple or brown follicle 6.5 mm wide.

Taxonomy
Zanthoxylum ovalifolium was first formally described in 1839 by Robert Wight in his book, Illustrations of Indian Botany, from specimens collected in the "Shevagerry hills in flower, and fruit in August and September".

Distribution and habitat
Thorny yellowwood is a widespread species, found from India, through southeast Asia, Malesia, New Guinea, and Queensland. In Australia it occurs between the Daintree River and Ravenshoe, growing in rainforest at altitudes between 100 and 1260 m.

Timber
Thorny yellowwood is a timber tree valued for its hard, yellowish-white, close-grained wood.

Medicinal uses
The fruits of this species are reported to have "astringent, stimulative, and digestive properties".

Essential oils
The fruits yield the essential oils myrcene and safrole.