prickly ash

 

noun

  • a spiny North American shrub or tree with prickly branches and bark that can be used medicinally.
    • Genus Zanthoxylum, family Rutaceae: the northern Z. americanum and the southern Z. clava-herculis (also called Hercules' club)
  • [mass noun] a medicinal preparation made from the bark of the prickly ash.