The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prickly ash \Prickly ash\ (Bot.),
A prickly shrub ( Xanthoxylum Americanum) with yellowish flowers appearing with the leaves; also called toothache tree. All parts of the plant are pungent and aromatic. The southern species is Xanthoxylum Carolinianum.
--Gray.(Bot.), Hercules'-club, also called the Angelica tree.
WordNet
n. small deciduous aromatic shrub (or tree) having spiny branches and yellowish flowers; eastern North America [syn: sea ash, Zanthoxylum americanum, Zanthoxylum fraxineum]
Wikipedia
Toothache tree may refer to one of several American trees:
- Aralia spinosa (also called angelica tree, devil's walking stick, prickly ash)
- Zanthoxylum clava-herculis (also called pepperwood, Southern prickly ash) or Zanthoxylum americanum (Northern prickly ash).
Usage examples of "toothache tree".
The pulverized bark is also used for paralytic affections and nervous headaches and as a topical irritant the bark, either in powdered form, or chewed, has been a very popular remedy for toothache in America, hence the origin of a common name of the tree in the States: Toothache Tree.