Japanese Prickly Ash

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Zanthoxylum ailanthoides

Japanese Prickly Ash, a reference photo
Photo: Shih-Shiuan Kao · CC BY-SA 2.0 (licence)

Zanthoxylum ailanthoides, also called ailanthus-like prickly ash, (Chinese: 椿叶花椒; pinyin: chun ye hua jiao, lit. "Ailanthus-leaved pepper", Chinese: 越椒; pinyin: yue-jiao; Wade–Giles: yüeh-chiao, lit. "Yue pepper", 食茱萸 shi zhu yu, lit. "edible shān zhū yú"; Japanese: カラスザンショウ, からすのさんしょう karasu-zanshō, karasu-no-sanshō, lit. "crow prickly ash") is an Asiatic plant of the prickly-ash genus Zanthoxylum, natively occurring in forest-covered parts of southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and Japan from Honshu southward. The piquant fruit serves as a local substitute for the ordinary red-pepper in China before the Columbian exchange. In Taiwan, the young leaves are used in cuisines.

From Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Is it poisonous?

We have no record of Japanese Prickly Ash being toxic, poisonous or venomous. That is not proof that it is safe. Never eat, touch or handle a wild plant, mushroom or animal on the strength of an identification; ask someone qualified.

Easily confused with

Classification

Kingdom
Plantae
Phylum
Tracheophyta
Class
Magnoliopsida
Order
Sapindales
Family
Rutaceae
Species
Zanthoxylum ailanthoides

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