common pricklyash Rutaceae Zanthoxylum americanum

Leaf:Alternate, deciduous, pinnately compound, to 8 inches long, 5-11 ovate to lanceolate finely serrate leaflets; shiny green above, light green below; crushed leaves smell like citrus.
Flower:Species is dioecious; in small umbrella-like clusters, individual flowers tiny and yellow-green to orange, with 4-5 petals, fragrant, appearing at the branch tips in early spring.
Fruit:Follicles produced in clusters, 1/4 inch long, individual fruits enclosed in a reddish husk that splits open at maturity to reveal a shiny red-brown to black seed.
Twig:Stout, green changing gray-brown, bearing sharp paired spines, leaf scars shield-shaped, terminal buds rounded and green to brown; flower buds dome-shape and roughened; broken twig smells like citrus.
Bark:Gray-brown and smooth, becoming somewhat furrowed with age.
Form:Usually a suckering shrub, but sometimes a small tree to 25 feet in height.

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