Andaliman

Shrubs, woody climbers, or trees to 6 m tall. Bark grayish black. Branchlets rust-colored pubescent to nearly glabrous, usually with prickles. Leaves 3-9-foliolate; rachis wings to 3 mm on each side; leaflet blades sessile, opposite, ovate-elliptic to lanceolate, 6-10 × 2-4 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous to rust-colored pubescent, oil glands inconspicuous, secondary veins 10-28 on each side of midvein and evident, margin entire or crenate. Inflorescences axillary. Perianth in 2 irregular series or 1 series, with 6-8 ± undifferentiated tepals. Tepals pale yellowish green, narrowly lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm. Male flowers: stamens 5 or 6; anthers reddish purple before anthesis; disk pulvinate; rudimentary carpels 2-5. Female flowers: rudimentary stamens lacking; carpels 2-5, sparsely hirsute to glabrous, abaxially often with a conspicuous oil gland; styles recurved. Fruit follicles usually purplish red, ca. 4 mm in diam., glabrous or sometimes with sparse trichomes, oil glands large and protruding. Seeds ca. 3 mm in diam. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 64.

Himalaya (Kumaun to Bhutan), Khasia, east to China, Malaysia.

W Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].

1600-2800 m

Upland open forests and thickets; 1400-3200 m.

Zanthoxylum acanthopodium var. oligotrichum Z. M. Tan; Z. acanthopodium var. timbor J. D. Hooker; Z. acanthopodium var. villosum C. C. Huang.

Seeds

Zanthoxylum acanthopodium, or andaliman, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae. Its range includes southern western China (Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Tibet, and Yunnan), Bangladesh, Bhutan, northern India and northeastern India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal), Nepal, Laos, Burma, northern Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia (northern Sumatran highlands), and Peninsular Malaysia.

Much like the closely related Sichuan pepper (Z. piperitum), the seed pericarps are used as spices in cooking and have a similar tongue-numbing characteristic. However, in cooking, the flavour of andaliman has lemon-like notes (similar to those of lemon-grass) as well as a hint of the aromatic pandan leaf.