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Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-649
Sichuan Pepper
Zanthoxylum simulans
Sichuan Pepper is a deciduous shrub or small tree grown for its dried fruit, a sharper, more pungent condiment than black pepper and one of the components of Chinese five-spice. It tolerates anything from full sun to full shade, unusual for a spice plant, so it can be tucked under taller trees where a sun-hungry crop would fail. It is dioecious, so a lone plant may flower for years and never set a single peppercorn - fruit needs at least one male sited among the females. It also suckers freely, spreading itself into a thicket over time, which is free propagation stock and a self-thickening hedge if wanted, or simply a mown margin away if not.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun · Shade
- USDA zone
- USDA 6–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Sub-Canopy- Soil pH
- 5.5–8
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 12–20 ft
- Mature spread
- 10–20 ft
- Plant spacing
- 9.8 ft
- Root type
- Not yet recorded
- Spread pattern
- Root
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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