Prickly Ash/Zanthoxylum species as bonsai

[tanlu]

Fellow bonsai/plant friends,

There is a plant commonly sold as mallsai and is said to be a Chinese pepper tree or Japanese pepper tree (or another member of the Zanthoxylum family / type of prickly ash). The leaves, bark, and stems in the photos tend to look the same regardless of vendor or the name it’s given. Even Wikipedia seems to have added this tree to the Zanthoxylum family.

I thought about purchasing one of these thinking it would be cool to have the famed Sichuan peppercorn as a bonsai, but after doing my own research I started to doubt whether any of these mallsai are from the Zanthoxylum family.

I’ve also been growing out 2 Sichuan peppercorn plants (one of several Zanthoxylum species, z. simulans or used in Sichuan cuisine) and 1 North American Zanthoxylum species (Z. americanum) in hopes that one of them could be developed into bonsai.

All of my Zanthoxylum plants, and their relatives I’ve seen on the internet, have sharp thorns on the stems and petioles, coarser foliage, and bark that gets bumpy with age.

Their culture is quite different too. For one thing, it seems all the East Asian and North American species of Zanthoxylum are deciduous and can handle at least a mild winter outdoors. Mine have done just fine in their pots outside in zone 7a winters.

It’s been said on this forum as well as on Reddit that this mallsai is actually operculicarya decaryi from Madagascar. But there are debates on that, as well since apparently there are other non-Zanthoxylum species used for bonsai that look very similar. Could we get to the bottom of this?

Members of the Zanthoxylum family have both culinary, cultural, and historical relevance to a lot of people. I’d love to get input from members of this community on this topic and build consensus on this.

 

[gooeytek]

I'm curious about this type of tree too...

 

[KikurageOtomo]

Possibly a case where they are closely related but foliage looks disparate? I'd agree that the description for Sansho/Sichuan is quite different from the attributes you see on these "Chinese Pepper Trees" as it differs quite a bit from my observations on both as well. Inversely, some sources have stated that "Sichuan" or "Sansho" actually describe a range of species as opposed to a singular one. If the plant fruits and flowers similarly to other varieties of pepper, I'd be inclined to believe that's the case.

 

[tanlu]

The Zanthoxylum family includes at least 250 species of plants, some of which look quite different from one another. However, the ones I’ve seen so far (and mentioned in my original post) share similar physiological characteristics, including similar-looking foliage, thorns on stems (and sometimes on the petioles, like Z. Bungeanum and Z. Simulans) and that distinct Sichuan peppercorn fragrance when touching the leaves and fruit of the tree.

It would be great if we could the correct scientific name for the species commonly sold for bonsai (or mallsai).

 

[R3x]

Reading on the culinary use got me an idea: it the mallsais were of Zanthoxylum family it would be quite easily to find out by just tasting a leave or two. I have 2 Zanthoxylum trees on the garden and young shoots have that distinctive Szechuan pepper taste. Next time I'm in a mall where they have some of these I'll try to snip a leaf ;-)

 

[tanlu]

I also got into growing Zanthoxylum for culinary reasons. The berries, leaves, and even bark have culinary and even medicinal uses. However, I’m not sure having a similar flavor between species would necessarily confirm any genetic information. It might just make of a use case for the mallsai. Do you know if the mallsai produces fragrant berries in the same way the actual Zanthoxylum Simulans/Bungeanum/etc. species does?

I wont deny that I’ve taken a few snips of leaves from plants at Home Depot for cuttings. If anyone questions you you can say that you’re helping invigorate the plant!