PlantFiles: Prickly Ash, Tickle Tongue Tree, Toothache Tree, Texas Hercules Club
Zanthoxylum hirsutum

This species of Zanthoxylum is found in Texas and is smaller than Zanthoxylum clava-hercules and has many thorns along the leaves and twigs. The leaves can be numbing, more or less depending on the time of year. It is a host plant for the Giant Swallowtail. It is not easy to propagate from seed.

ssustaire and sticher7... No worries on transplanting prickly ash, or losing one to a storm. They propagate by two methods: seed and (apparently) rhizome-type roots. I have prickly ash in my "yard" (40 acres of "woods" and "wetlands"), and they keep invading the areas where I mow...as well as keep coming back where I cut and rip them out (I try to keep them separate from my sumacs, and have had to dig out the horizontal "rhizomes" from my vegetable garden). They are nearly impossible to eradicate once they have taken hold....and they can spread very fast! The only reasons I allow these trees to grow at all is for the natural "security fence" (the thorns, of course) and the medicinal properties of the bark and RIPE berries (not the seeds, they are toxic!!!). The only tree I know of which is more frustratingly invasive is buckthorn..............

Wingnut, don't chew the leaves -- chew the bark. I haven't found any historical references showing that the leaves were ever used. There must be a good reason for that....

Sadly, the storm that came thru Collin County, TX on 6/10 wiped out our 'numb gum tree' which was here before we built 29 years ago. It was covered with pea size green balls. I saved a bunch, there's still more attached to the remains in the field behind us. There's still 6-8 ft of trunk standing, which now that I've done some research, I'll watch to see if any babies come up from the base. I'm hoping that maybe I can start some from the seed balls. Hate to see an old native get wiped out, it was a pretty tree.

I have one of these beautiful trees on my property and I love it! Fire ants have made their home in it's trunk and they are doing major damage. It's an old tree and for the 3 years I've lived here, every summer green japanese beetles and butterflies swarm this tree as it secreets sap. It will be sad to see it go.

I found this odd tree growing in the woods behind our home. I have been told that it is ok by the owner if I transplant one to my own property. Where it is there are about 10-15 growing, all diferent ages. The older ones have more smooth bark, as if the spikes kind of grow off, or into slight bumps. Any thoughts on transplanting one? I think it has such aesthetic beauty and a strange grace & dignity about it.

I live in Bell County, about 4 miles west of Belton on Sparta Road. I have a large "tickle tongue" tree growing just inside my property line. I've told my brother and a friend and they thought I dreamed up the term "tickle tongue tree". Thanks

The leaves are a nice glossy green, and if you bruise them or cut with your fingernail, you will be rewarded with a nice smell. But if you chance to stick yourself with one of the prickles, it will cause a painful reaction for months. The Prickly Ash makes an attractive shrub and does not appear to be bothered by pests.

If you chew the leaves of this tree your tongue and lips will be numbed slightly, hence the names "Tickle Tongue Tree" and "Toothache Tree". Native Americans used this tree for that very purpose ~ numbing a toothache.