Zanthoxylum parvum

Zanthoxylum parvum is a rhizomatous and deciduous plant. It is a dioecious shrub and can grow up to 2 m tall. Stems have erect prickles, sometimes curved, which occur either solitary or paired; they range from 4-13mm long. Zanthoxylum parvum are imparapinnate with alternate leaves and average about 7–13 leaflets. The rachis and petioles are not winged.

The leaflets are opposite, usually oval shaped with a tapering point or sometimes ovate or lanceolate. The leaflets range from 6–16(−35) mm long and 11–18 mm wide with an obtuse apex and a triangular attaching to a stem cuneate. They are pellucid-punctate along crenulate margins and are pubescent on and between veins.

Flowers appear as umbrella-like clusters from 2–12 in small terminal to axillary umbellate clusters. They are imperfect with pedicels 2–4 m long; there are 4–5 petals, elliptic to ovate-oblong 1.6–1.9 mm long and have green with reddish hairs near the tips; stamens 5; ovary with 2–5 carpels. Zanthoxylum parvum flowers in late March until early April, before its leaves have expanded fully. Although foliage is present throughout most of the year it eventually becomes deciduous and turns yellow in mid-October.

The fruit is a follicle with 2 seeds per carpel.

Underlies of maple-oak woodlands or dense growth of small trees like evergreen oak on rocky, often shallow, well-drained, tuff or other igneous rock, at elevations of 1,350–1,750 metres (4,430–5,740 ft).

The understory is primarily native bunchgrasses with a mix of other cacti and herbaceous species. In shaded dense areas, the ground is sparsely inhabited with vegetation but covered with dense leaf litter.

• Poole, Jackie M.; Carr, William R.; Price, Dana M.; Singhurst, Jason R. (2007). Rare Plants Of Texas. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 1-58544-557-6.