Top Chinese Prickly Ash

Top Chinese Prickly Ash

Top Chinese Prickly Ash is a protected geographical indication product.

Top Chinese Prickly Ash is a certified geographical indication trademark.

　　Guizhou specialty Top Chinese Prickly Ash. The green variety, a deciduous shrub or small tree of the Rutaceae family, is prized for its large grains, pure numbing flavor, fragrant aroma, vibrant green color, and rich content of essential human

　　vitamins such as VB1, VB2, VE, flavonoids, as well as trace elements like magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium, and various unsaturated fatty acids including linolenic acid and linoleic acid. It offers high medicinal value and serves as an indispensable condiment, spice, and woody oil-producing tree species in daily life.

　　Basic Information on Guizhou Specialty Top Chinese Prickly Ash

　　Scientific Name: Top Chinese Prickly Ash Green Food

　　English Name: Pricklyash Peel

　　Family: Rutaceae

　　Ecological Habits of Guizhou Specialty Top Chinese Prickly Ash

　　The Top Chinese Prickly Ash plant is relatively small with a shallow root system and strong adaptability. It can be effectively cultivated on idle lands such as barren hills, wastelands, roadsides, field margins, and around houses. Mountainous orchards generally enjoy ample sunlight and good drainage, resulting in high yields and superior quality. The middle and lower slopes of sunny and semi-sunny hillsides, gentle terraces, edges of terraced fields, and areas with loose, deep, fertile, well-drained sandy loam or calcareous soils are also ideal for planting. It thrives in light, prefers warm but not overly humid conditions, and grows best in deep, fertile loamy or sandy soils. It has strong sprouting ability, cold resistance, drought tolerance, and disease resistance, with long-lived dormant buds making it highly tolerant to heavy pruning. While resistant to drought, it does not tolerate waterlogging and may die if subjected to prolonged water accumulation.

　　Morphological Characteristics of Guizhou’s Top Chinese Prickly Ash

　　Features and Identification: Top Chinese Prickly Ash is a variant of Zanthoxylum armatum. It is an evergreen shrub, 2–2.5 m tall, occasionally reaching 4–5 (or 7) m. Its stems and branches are covered with sharp thorns, which are broadly flattened at the base, reddish-brown in color, and grow horizontally on twigs. The leaf axis is thornless, and the small leaves have no tiny spines on their undersides. Twigs, leaves, and young shoots are either hairless or occasionally have fine hairs. The pinnate leaves are alternate, with 3–11 (sometimes up to 5–11) small leaflets, and distinct wing-like petioles about 2–3 mm wide. Leaflets are opposite on the petiole, typically lanceolate or lanceolate-elliptic, 4–9 cm long and 1.5–2.5 cm wide. When dry, the leaf margins curl noticeably backward. The central leaflet is the largest and straightest, while the basal pair is the smallest. The leaf surface is slightly rough, dark green above and blue-green and coarse beneath, with irregularly spaced small blunt teeth along the margins. Oil glands are often found in the notches of the teeth. The midrib is sunken above and inconspicuous below, while on the underside it is prominently raised along with slender lateral veins. Leaflet stalks are very short (about 1 mm) or absent. The inflorescence is a cymose panicle, axillary or terminal on lateral branches, varying greatly in length (about 2–7 cm), bearing 20–40 (sometimes up to 60) small flowers. There are 6–8 tepals, ovate-triangular, obtuse at the tip, about 1–1.5 mm long. Staminate flowers have 4–6 long, slender stamens that extend well beyond the vestigial pistil, with dot-like anthers. The connective tissue atop the anthers turns blackish-brown into an oil spot after a day. The sterile pistil is raised and slightly split at the tip into a curved column. Pistillate flowers have two carpels, each with an oil gland near the dorsal apex, a recurved style, and short, early-falling stamens. The fruit skin is usually olive green when ripe, occasionally purplish-red, with prominent convex oil glands. Each fruit is about 4–5 mm in diameter, splitting upon drying to reveal a pale green inner layer. Seeds are 2–3 mm in diameter, with black, glossy, horny seed coats. Flowering occurs from March to April, fruiting from July to August.

　　Appearance and Sensory Features of Guizhou Specialty Top Chinese Prickly Ash

　　First, the trees do not shed leaves in winter and remain evergreen year-round. Second, through long-term natural selection and artificial breeding, the Top Chinese Prickly Ash has developed a new variant with green leaves. Compared to the original bamboo-leaf type, its leaf axis and leaflets have fewer or no thorns. The cymose panicles are axillary or terminal on lateral branches, vary in length (about 2–7 cm), bear more flowers, and produce olive-green fruit skins upon ripening. These feature prominent convex oil glands and oil sacs, rich in volatile oils, offering an intense fragrance, high oil content, and strong numbing flavor. It is characterized by “numbing the mouth, warming the body without causing internal heat, yet cooling the heart.”

　　Distribution and Growing Environment of Guizhou Specialty Top Chinese Prickly Ash

　　Top Chinese Prickly Ash is a unique economic plant found in Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Hunan. Influenced by the region’s distinctive terrain, landforms, and soil, it possesses a unique aroma and taste. Long known for being “strongly aromatic, intensely numbing, and high-yielding,” it has been cultivated for hundreds of years. Due to its calcium preference, drought resistance, and excellent soil and water conservation properties, it holds high economic value and is now a major eco-economic tree in the region. Scientific and rational development of these special resources, integrating ecological restoration with the establishment of prickly ash production bases, plays a significant role in alleviating ecological vulnerability and population pressure in these areas… It also helps cultivate and strengthen the prickly ash industry and its competitiveness, while improving regional ecology and developing socioeconomic conditions.

　　Origin and Development History of Guizhou Specialty Top Chinese Prickly Ash

　　Origin of Top Chinese Prickly Ash: In 1990, Ran Maocai from House No. 29, Baogongzhai Group, Dingtan Area, Beipanjiang Town, Xingyi City, Guizhou Province, began cultivating seeds and gradually modified the variety. Eventually, this variety was widely adopted across the entire Dingtan Area.

　　In 1991, Guizhou’s Zhenfeng County was named “China’s Hometown of Prickly Ash.” The Dingtan Area of Beipanjiang Town in Zhenfeng County lies within a fragile karst ecosystem. Starting in 1992, the Zhenfeng County Party Committee and County Government decided to develop the prickly ash industry in the ecologically vulnerable Dingtan Area, which suffers severe alkali desertification. The Maocai Nursery, the origin of Top Chinese Prickly Ash, sold over three million seedlings annually, guiding farmers toward prosperity through prickly ash cultivation in rocky terrain. By 2007, Zhenfeng County produced 11,000 tons of prickly ash, generating a value of 120 million yuan. Production shifted from scattered household planting to base-oriented, scaled, and industrialized operations. The county now has 153,000 mu (approx. 10,200 hectares) under cultivation, with over 60,000 mu bearing fruit. Prickly ash production has become a key initiative for adjusting agricultural structure, increasing farmers’ income, and combating rocky desertification. Thanks to prickly ash farming, four villages in the Dingtan Area gained access to water, electricity, roads, television, and telephone — achieving the “five connections.” Soil erosion control reached 94%, and rocky desertification management hit 92%. Yundongwan Village, once bare bedrock, was honored as a “National Top 1,000 Green Villages.” On December 31, 2007, Zhenfeng County was awarded the title “China’s Hometown of Prickly Ash” by the China Economic Forest Association. With rising fame, counterfeit Top Chinese Prickly Ash products have increasingly flooded the market, damaging the brand’s reputation, harming local farmers’ interests, and threatening the establishment of the “Dingtan Prickly Ash” brand. To protect farmers’ benefits, cultivate a strong brand, grow the industry, and boost local development, the Zhenfeng County Government and relevant departments, having successfully registered the “Dingtan” trademark in 2001, continued research and, based on extensive evidence and analysis, actively supported applications for “Geographical Indication Product Protection” for Dingtan Prickly Ash. After years of effort, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine officially approved the protection. This marks the first premium agricultural product in Southwest Guizhou to be listed under national geographical indication protection.

　　Top Chinese Prickly Ash is produced in the Beipan River Valley of Zhenfeng County, known as “China’s Hometown of Prickly Ash.” Through long-term accumulation and development, this tiny spice has generated notable economic, social, and ecological benefits. By 2008, the county’s prickly ash planting area had reached 150,000 mu, with a yield of 11,000 tons and a value of 150 million yuan. In the core production area of Dingtan, the annual per capita income from prickly ash alone exceeded 1,000 yuan, with Yundongwan Village achieving as much as 30,000 yuan per capita.

　　Cultivation and Management of Guizhou Specialty Top Chinese Prickly Ash

　　Planting Methods: Planting should be adapted to local conditions. Orchards are generally oriented to face south. Row spacing is 3 meters, plant spacing 2 meters, allowing approximately 850 plants per hectare. Consider the yield and harvest timing of different varieties. Prepare planting pits in advance, 60 cm square. Place topsoil on the left and subsoil on the right. Mix topsoil with fertilizer and backfill to the pit bottom; place subsoil on top for easier soil maturation. Planting depth should match the original soil mark on the seedling — too shallow leads to poor drought resistance, too deep hinders growth. Use the “three layers of soil, two tamps, one lift” method. These details significantly affect later growth. Spacing should be reasonable: smaller between plants, larger between rows. About 940 plants per hectare, rows facing south, spaced 4–5 m apart, plants 2–3 m apart. Denser planting on flat land, sparser on hillsides. First dig pits 30 cm deep, separating topsoil and subsoil. Mix topsoil with fertilizer, then backfill to the bottom. Subsoil goes on top for maturation. Water thoroughly to compact. Dig a small hole for the seedling, refill with fine soil. Planting depth should be just right — too deep or too shallow both hinder growth. In winter, pile soil around for cold protection. Shallow planting dries out easily; deep planting restricts growth. Water after planting, then cover with fine soil. In spring, remove the soil mound after thawing. Follow the “three layers of soil, two tamps, one lift” method carefully.

　　The geographical indication protection area for Top Chinese Prickly Ash includes four towns under the jurisdiction of Zhenfeng County, Guizhou Province: Beipanjiang Town, Pingjie Township, Zhexiang Town, and Baiceng Town.