Hercules Club

Description:

Hercules' Club (or Hercules-club), pepperwood, or Southern prickly ash, is a spiny tree or shrub native to the southeastern United States. It grows to 10–17 m tall and has distinctive spined thick, corky lumps 2–3 cm long on the bark. The leaves are glabrous and leathery,[1] pinnately compound, 20–30 cm long with 7-19 leaflets, each leaflet 4–5 cm long. The flowers are dioecious, in panicles up to 20 cm long, each flower small, 6–8 mm diameter, with 3-5 white petals. The fruit is a two-valved capsule 6 mm diameter with a rough surface, and containing several small black seeds.

Habitat:

LISDOLA (Lewisville Independent School District Outdoor Learning Area) is an eighty-acre tract of land located on the south side of Lake Lewisville Dam in Denton County. The landscape boasts wetlands, forests, fields, rivers and streams and contains approximately five miles of hiking trails. The outdoor learning area was created in the fall of 1999 when the school district erected two portable classrooms.

Notes:

It is sometimes called "toothache tree" or "tingle tongue" because of the numbness of the mouth, teeth, and tongue induced by chewing on its leaves or bark (thus relieving toothache). It was used for such medicinal purposes by both Native Americans and early settlers. Hercules' club is one of a handful of native plants in the citrus family that provide caterpillar food for Giant Swallowtails.