Szechuan Pepper (Zanthoxylum Bungeanum) has some common names including Chinese-pepper, Chinese prickly-ash or flatspine prickly-ash. It is a flowering plant in the family Rutaceae, native to eastern China and Taiwan. Szechuan Pepper is a spreading shrub or small tree growing to 7 m tall. The leaves are 7–12.5 cm long, pinnate, with 7–11 leaflets. There are numerous short spines on both the stems and the leaf petioles, and large knobs on the branches. The flowers are produced in slender cymes. The berry has a rough reddish brown shell that splits open to release the black seeds from inside.