Lime prickly-ash

Zanthoxylum fagara, the lime prickly-ash or wild lime, is a small evergreen tree or large shrub in the Rutaceae family native to the southern United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America to Argentina. Plants typically reach 3 to 9 metres in height with slender, much-branched stems armed with sharp, hooked, catclaw-like prickles. The alternate, pinnately compound leaves bear 5 to 13 small, glossy, ovate to obovate leaflets along a narrowly winged rachis; crushed foliage releases a strong citrus aroma from translucent oil glands. The small, greenish yellow, unisexual flowers are borne in short axillary clusters and produce reddish brown follicular fruits about 4 millimetres across that split to release shiny black seeds. The species is dioecious, drought tolerant, and a characteristic component of subtropical thornscrub and dry coastal forest.