Prickly yellow

Zanthoxylum caribaeum, prickly yellow, is a spiny shrub or small to medium tree of the citrus family (Rutaceae) native to the Neotropics, ranging from the Caribbean and Mexico through Central America to tropical South America (Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia), where it grows in dry to moist lowland forest, thickets and disturbed margins. The trunk and branches are armed with sharp, often broad-based prickles, and the bark is corky and aromatic. The alternate, pinnately compound leaves bear several gland-dotted, citrus-scented leaflets with translucent oil glands and a winged or unwinged rachis. The plant is usually dioecious, producing small greenish to yellowish flowers in branched terminal or axillary panicles. The fruits are small reddish-brown follicles that split to release shiny black seeds and, like other prickly-ashes, emit a pungent peppery aroma and produce a tongue-numbing sensation. It is a widespread component of seasonally dry neotropical woodland.