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Zanthoxylum americanum; photograph (c) Tom Scavo, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Tom Scavo, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-21

Zanthoxylum americanum Mill.

Toothache tree; Northern prickly-ash; American prickly-ash; Common prickly ash

Rutaceae · Nova Scotia, Ontario +38

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Zanthoxylum americanum, photograph (c) Carter Ertel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Zanthoxylum americanum, photograph (c) Carter Ertel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Zanthoxylum americanum, photograph (c) Carter Ertel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Zanthoxylum americanum, photograph (c) Carter Ertel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Zanthoxylum americanum, photograph (c) Carter Ertel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Zanthoxylum americanum, photograph (c) Carter Ertel, some rights reserved (CC BY) 84 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-26.1°C
Record low -41.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
927mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Zanthoxylum americanum, the common prickly-ash, common pricklyash, common prickly ash or northern prickly-ash (also sometimes called toothache tree, yellow wood, or suterberry), is an aromatic shrub or small tree native to central and eastern portions of the United States and Canada. It is the northernmost New World species in the citrus family, Rutaceae, and is the type species in its genus, which includes sichuan pepper. It can grow to 10 meters (33 ft) tall with a diameter at breast height (DBH) of 15 cm (5.9 in). It produces membranous leaflets and axillary flower clusters. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Zanthoxylum americanum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Zanthoxylum

Zanthoxylum is a genus of about 250 species of deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs and climbers in the family Rutaceae that are native to warm temperate and subtropical areas worldwide. It is the type genus of the tribe Zanthoxyleae in the subfamily Rutoideae. Several of the species have yellow heartwood, to which their generic name alludes. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Zanthoxylum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (656 mm of 932 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.0 °C against a yearly mean of 8.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

Rain

932 mm in the median year at the habitat, 656 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 110 mm, driest months (2 at 47 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 805 mm to 1,125 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 927 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 932 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -26.1 °C, the absolute minimum -41.6 °C, 6,795 frost nights in 44 years, 154.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -10.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -14.2 °C to -5.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.3 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -26.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -17 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Zanthoxylum americanum through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -10.8 °C; 932 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-60°-40°-20°0°20°40°frost33.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-41.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 9–40RH 55–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1145 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-2 / -5–20 / -2–56 / 3–1114 / 11–1720 / 18–2225 / 23–2727 / 25–2926 / 24–2822 / 20–2515 / 13–187 / 5–110 / -3–4
Night °C-11 / -14–-6-9 / -12–-5-4 / -6–03 / 1–610 / 8–1215 / 14–1818 / 17–2017 / 16–2013 / 12–167 / 5–90 / -3–3-7 / -11–-3
Rain mm47 / 20–7947 / 20–7257 / 42–8582 / 69–10195 / 82–118110 / 85–127102 / 82–11899 / 80–12092 / 81–10476 / 64–9970 / 44–9655 / 27–89
DLI12 / 11–1418 / 17–2026 / 25–2732 / 31–3337 / 36–3840 / 39–4140 / 38–4134 / 33–3627 / 24–2918 / 16–2112 / 10–149 / 8–12
RH %63 / 59–6561 / 58–6357 / 56–5955 / 54–5756 / 54–5857 / 56–5958 / 57–5959 / 58–6058 / 57–6158 / 57–6160 / 58–6263 / 59–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1145 grid cells holding the 1589 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 934:1824 (43.275, -88.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -41.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -26.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1145 distinct grid cells holding 1589 of the 1589 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 934:1824 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.50_-88.750, lapse-corrected -17 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 256 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker43.301, -89.49 · in the densest population, 1014 records (54% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1861 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1589 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 492 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 102 km away. 272 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1861 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Zanthoxylum americanum, photograph 1did not loadZanthoxylum americanum, photograph 2did not loadZanthoxylum americanum, photograph 3did not loadZanthoxylum americanum, photograph 4did not loadZanthoxylum americanum, photograph 5did not loadZanthoxylum americanum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Carter Ertel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Gentiana andrewsii Gentiana andrewsii Andrews' bottle gentian Photo: CC BY, FunkyRatMuhlenbergia mexicana Muhlenbergia mexicana Mexican muhly Photo: CC BY, Sam TurnerRibes americanum Ribes americanum Wild black currant Photo: CC BY, Sam TurnerDesmodium canadense Desmodium canadense Showy tick trefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedVitis riparia Vitis riparia Riverbank grape Photo: CC0, author not statedQuercus × bebbiana Quercus × bebbiana Bebb's oak Photo: CC BY, Rose Zappa

Other Zanthoxylum 31 in the reference

Zanthoxylum acanthopodium Zanthoxylum acanthopodium Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, Jacy ChenZanthoxylum ailanthoides Zanthoxylum ailanthoides Alianthus-like prickly-ash Photo: CC BY, chiuluanZanthoxylum armatum Zanthoxylum armatum Winged prickly-ash Photo: CC BY, jimmyZanthoxylum asiaticum Zanthoxylum asiaticum Climbing Orange Photo: CC BY, AparnaZanthoxylum avicennae Zanthoxylum avicennae Chinese Wingleaf Prickly Ash Photo: CC BY, Toby YZanthoxylum beecheyanum Zanthoxylum beecheyanum Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, M108tZanthoxylum bungeanum Zanthoxylum bungeanum Sichuan-pepper Photo: CC BY, Marco MussitaZanthoxylum capense Zanthoxylum capense Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, Shaun SwanepoelZanthoxylum caribaeum Zanthoxylum caribaeum Prickly yellow Photo: CC BY-SA, Janitzio Pech ZúñigaZanthoxylum clava-herculis Zanthoxylum clava-herculis Hercules' club Photo: CC BY, Laura GaudetteZanthoxylum coco Zanthoxylum coco Rutaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedZanthoxylum davyi Zanthoxylum davyi Forest Knobwood Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshaw all 32 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Mioptrila odorata; Thylax fraxineum; Zanthoxylum americanum f. americanum; Zanthoxylum americanum f. armatius; Zanthoxylum americanum f. impuniens and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Zanthoxylum caribaeum Gaertn. is an older name of this species, not Zanthoxylum caribaeum, a species of the reference; Zanthoxylum clava-herculis Lam. is an older name of this species, not Zanthoxylum clava-herculis, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rutaceae
Described by
Mill.
Native to
Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec +37
Wild records
1861 in range · 492 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 38 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (28 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 at a herbarium, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.50_-88.750, lapse-corrected -17 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 70 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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