White Pricklyash

Zanthoxylum martinicense (Lam.) DC. Prodr. 1 : 726. 1824
Fagara martinicense Lam. Tab. Encyc. 1 : 334. 1792. Zanthoxylum juglandifolium Wllld. Sp. PI. 4: 756. 1806. Zanthoxylum album Valil, Eclog. 3 : 47. 1807.
Zanthoxylum lanceolatum Poir. in Lam. Encyc. Suppl. 2: 293. 1811. Zanthoi vlum juglandifolium f Berterianum DC. Prodr. 1 : 727. 1824. Zanthoxyum Ayua Maza, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 19 : 228. 1890.
A tree, often 20 m. high, with grayish bark, bearing stout pyramidal or conic hardcorky prickles, sometimes 5.5 cm. long and 6.5 cm. broad ; branches hispidulous especially at or near their ends, unarmed, or armed with straight or slightly curved brownish prickles ; leaves odd-pinnate or occasionally equally pinnate, 1-3.5 dm. long, longer and with more leaflets on the young shoots; leaflets 5-15, oblong, oblong-lanceolate, obovate, elliptic, or rarely ovate, 3-13 cm. long, 1.5-4.3 cm. wide, obtusely short-acuminate or occasionally acute, rounded or emarginate at the apex, obliquely rounded or acute at the base, inequilateral, glossy and hispidulous especially on the depressed midrib, or with scattered hairs on the upper surface, paler and hispidulous on the midrib and veins beneath, the margins crenulate or entire, occasionally somewhat revolute, the pellucid glands scattered ; petioles and rachis terete or somewhat angled, sometimes slightly grooved, hispidulous, unarmed, or armed with brownish prickles; inflorescence paniculate, terminal and axillary, 0.6-1.5 dm. long; staminate flowers: calyx 1-1.4 mm. broad, hispidulous; sepals 5, triangular or triangular-ovate, rounded or acute at the apex ; petals5, ovate or elliptic-ovate, 2-3 mm. long, 1-1.3 mm. broad, white; stamens 5, longer than the petals, the filaments slender, the anthers ovate or rarely orbicular-ovate; pistillate flowers: sepals hispidulous; petals erect; gynoecium obovoid, globose-obovoid, or somewhat pyriform, 5-carpellary, truncate ; style very short ; stigma peltate, 1.3-1.5 mm. in diameter, usually distinctly 5-lobed ; follicles close together, sessile, connate below or to the middle, 4-6 mm. long, 3-4 mm. broad ; seeds 3-4 mm. long, 2.5-3 mm. broad and 2-3 mm. thick, black, shining.
Type locality : Martinique.
Distribution : Jamaica ; Cuba to Trinidad ; also in South America.

Zanthoxylum martinicense, the Martinique prickly ash, white pricklyash, or espino rubial, is an evergreen tree with pinnately compound leaves and thick conical spines on its bark. It grows up to 20 m tall. Male and female flowers are on separate trees. The flower clusters (panicles) are terminal and much branched, bearing many almost stalkless flowers.