Zanthoxylum fagara

Zanthoxylum fagara (L.) Sarg.

Common Names: Wild Lime, Satin Wood, Prickly Ash.

Family: Rutaceae

Habit: Zanthoxylum fagara grows as a large shrub to small tree up to 10 meters in height.  The branches typically have hooked spines below the leaves.  The oddly pinnate leaves are arranged alternately with 5-9 leaflets with wings along the rachis.  The leaflets are sessile, to 2 cm in length, ovate to elliptic with a crenate leaf margin and an emarginate leaf apex. The leaflets produce a citrus odor when crushed.

Zanthoxylum fagara is dioecious. The incomplete, imperfect, actinomorphic flowers are arranged in panicles of racemes. The calyx has 4 green unfused sepals. The corolla has 4 unfused yellowish petals.  In staminate flowers there are 4 unfused stamens and a non-functional ovary.  In carpellate flowers there are no stamens and a pair of unfused superior ovaries each with a single locule.  The fruit is a capsule at maturity with a single shiny black seed.

Habitat: Zanthoxylum fagara grows in Dry Broadleaf Evergreen Formation- Shrublands (coppice/scrublands) particularly those that have been disturbed by humans.

Distribution: Zanthoxylum fagara occurs on all island groups in the Lucayan Archipelago as well as the southern United States, the Caribbean region, and Mexico and Central America.

Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage: Zanthoxylum fagara is used medicinally for general strengthening teas.

Zanthoxylum fagara has also been used in the horticultural trade as well as a sought after wood for cabinetry.