Hercules' Club

Zanthoxylum clava-herculis L,. Sp. PI. 270. 1753
Zanthoxylum cavolinianum Lam. Encyc 2 : 39. 17S6.
Zanthox'ylonfraxinifolium Walt. Fl. Car. 243. 1788. Not Z. J rax ini : folium Marsh. 1785.
Fagara fraxini folia Lam. Tab. Enevc 1 : 334. 1791.
Zanthoxylum tricarpum Michx. FLBor. Am. 2 : 235. 1803.
Zanthoxylum aromaliaim Willd. Sp. PI. 4 : 755. 1806. Kampmania fra i inifolia Raf. Med. Rep. II. 5: 352. 1808.
/, talon glandulosum Raf. Fl. Ludov. 108. 1817. Zanthoxylum t atesbianum Raf. Med. Bot. 2 : 114. 1830. Zanlho I vlum glandulosum Raf. Med. Bot. 2 : 116. 1830. Zaniho vylum macrophyllum Nutt. N. Am. Sylva 3 : 10. 1849. Pseudopetalon tricarpum Raf.; S. Wats. Bibl. Ind. 155, as synonym. 1878. Fagara caroliniana Engler, in E. & P. Nat. Pfl.3<: 117. 1896. Fagara Clava-Herculis .Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 675. 1903.
A prickly shrub, or tree 8-17 m. high, the bark light-gray, bearing short, stout, conic or pyramidal, usually blunt, hard-corky prickles ; branches, petioles, and rachis pubescent when young, with age commonly glabrate, usually armed with sharp, often flat, straight or sometimes curved brownish prickles ; leaves odd-pinnate, 1-3 dm. long, persistent until late in the winter or until spring; leaflets 3-19, opposite or subopposite, oblique, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-8.5 cm. long, 1-3.5 cm. broad, acute to longacuminate at the apex, rounded or cuneate at the base, often somewhat falcate, crenateserrate, green and lustrous above, paler and glabrous or somewhat pubescent beneath when young, the pellucid glands numerous or scattered ; petioles and rachis terete, stout ; panicles corymb-like, 0.5-1.5 dm. long; staminate flowers: calyx 2.5-3 mm. broad; sepals 5, oblong, ovate-oblong, or ovate-lanceolate, about 1 mm. long, glabrous ; petals 5, green, oval, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or sometimes obovate, 3-4 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. broad ; stamens 5, longer than the petals ; filaments stout ; anthers ovate or oval ; pistillate flowers : calyx 2-3 mm. broad ; sepals ovate to ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, about 1 mm. long, deciduous in fruit and sometimes while in flower ; petals narrowly elliptic to oblong or ovate, 2.5-3 mm. long, 1 mm. broad, green ; pistils 2 or 3, rarely 1, sessile ; styles short ; pedicels long, slender ; follicles obliquely-obovoid or globose-obovoid, brown, apiculate, 5-7 mm. long, the surface wrinkled or pitted ; seeds round-ellipsoid to obovoid, 4-5.5 mm. long, rather smooth or coarsely wrinkled, black, shining, at maturity hanging from the follicle.
Type locality : Sea coasts of Carolina.
Distribution : Southern Virginia to Florida, southern Arkansas, and Texas.