Zanthoxylum ovalifolium explained

Zanthoxylum ovalifolium, commonly known as thorny yellowwood, oval-leaf yellow wood or little yellowwood,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae. It is a shrub or tree usually with trifoliate leaves, white, male and female flowers arranged in panicles in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets and red, purple or brown follicles.

Description

Zanthoxylum ovalifolium is a shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of and often has prickles on its branchlets and thick, conical spines on its older stems. It has trifoliate leaves long, often with simple leaves on the same twig. The leaflets are elliptical to egg-shaped with the lower end towards the base, long, wide and sessile, the end leaflet sometimes on a petiolule up to long. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils, on the ends of branchlets, or both, in panicles up to long, each flower on a pedicel long. The four sepals are long and the four petals white and about long. Male flowers have four stamens long with a sterile, narrow oval carpel about high. Female flowers have a single carpel long, and sometimes rudimentary stamens. Flowering occurs in summer and the fruit is a spherical red, purple or brown follicle wide.[2] [3]

Taxonomy

Zanthoxylum ovalifolium was first formally described in 1839 by Robert Wight in his book, Illustrations of Indian Botany, from specimens collected in the "Shevagerry hills in flower, and fruit in August and September".[4] [5]

Distribution and habitat

Thorny yellowwood is a widespread species, found from India, through southeast Asia, Malesia, New Guinea, and Queensland. In Australia it occurs between the Daintree River and Ravenshoe, growing in rainforest at altitudes between .

Uses

Timber

Thorny yellowwood is a timber tree valued for its hard, yellowish-white, close-grained wood.[6]

Medicinal uses

The fruits of this species are reported to have "astringent, stimulative, and digestive properties".

Essential oils

The fruits yield the essential oils myrcene and safrole.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Zanthoxylum ovalifolium . F.A.Zich . B.P.M.Hyland . T.Whiffen . R.A.Kerrigan . Bernard Hyland . 2020 . Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants Edition 8 (RFK8) . . 1 July 2021 . 9 July 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210709182633/https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/entities/zanthoxylum_ovalifolium.htm . live .
  2. Book: Hartley . Thomas G. . Annette J.G. Wilson . Flora of Australia (Volume 26) . 2013 . Australian Biological Resources Study . Canberra . 78 . 18 August 2020 . 11 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210911233811/https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Zanthoxylum%20ovalifolium . live .
  3. Tutcher . William James . 1 July 1905 . Descriptions of some New Species and Notes on other Chinese Plants . Journal of the Linnean Society . 37 . 258 . 64 . Zanthoxylum ovalifolium, Wight? Specimens of, apparently, this species were found on the southern slope of Mt. Parker in April, 1903. They differ from the description of Z. ovalifolium in the rusty-tomentose inflorescence and much thinner (papery) leaves..
  4. Web site: Zanthoxylum ovalifolium. APNI. 18 August 2020. 11 September 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210911233812/https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/498234. live.
  5. Book: Wight . Robert . Illusrations of Indian Botany . 1839 . J. B. Pharoah for the author,1840-1850 . Madras . 169 . 18 August 2020 . 15 June 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200615085833/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/39609#page/187/mode/1up . live .
  6. 47829 Zanthoxylum ovalifolium . Inventory of Seeds and Plants Imported . 15 March 1922 . 51 . 65 . 12 September 2021.
  7. Web site: Zanthoxylum ovalifolium . Useful Tropical Plants . 12 September 2021.