Taibai Prickly Ash

Taibai Prickly Ash

　　A deciduous shrub or small tree, 3–7 m tall, usually with enlarged prickly stems; branches gray or brownish-gray, with tiny lenticels and slightly obliquely upward-pointing prickles; current-year twigs covered with short pubescence. Odd-pinnate compound leaves, with narrow wings along the rachis; leaflets 5–11, papery, ovate or ovate-oblong, sessile or nearly so, 1.5–7 cm long, 1–3 cm wide, apex acute or slightly emarginate, base nearly round, margin with fine serrations, surface often with a cluster of brownish long hairs on both sides of the central vein near the base, without thorns. Terminal cymose panicles, flowers mostly white or pale yellow, with 4–8 tepals; staminate flowers with 5–7 stamens, pistillate flowers with 3–4 (rarely 6–7) carpels, ovaries sessile. Fruit spherical, usually 2–3 per cluster, mostly green, red, purplish-red, or purplish-black in color, densely covered with warty oil glands. Flowering period March to May, fruiting period July to September.