Talk:Aralia spinosa

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Not toothache tree[edit]

I'm pretty sure the application of the common name "toothache tree" to Aralia spinosa is erroneous. This name is generally used for Zanthoxylum, which has had a medicinal usage specifically for its supposed numbing properties. I have seen no references to such medicinal usage for Aralia spinosa although I see this name is used in one of the references linked in the article, and also found references to this name used for Aralia spinosa on the web. My suspicion is that this name arises from confusion of this species with Zanthoxylum, which shares some other common names with Aralia spinosa, and most likely because of sloppy scholarship in the herbal references. I'm not sure how best to deal with this in the article so I'm leaving it for now. MrDarwin 14:38, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed; the Peterson field guide says that toothache tree is just Zanthoxylum. So I decided to WP:Be bold and fix it. If someone complains, we can ask them to cite a source. Kingdon 04:38, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The page [1] has some references (including to medical properties of Aralia), but many of the web pages listed are broken links. The best one I found (so far at least) was [2] which does mention taking "the berries in tincture" for toothache (the Petrides says that for Zanthoxylum one can chew the "leaves, fruits, or bark" although wikipedia currently says leaves for that one). So at this point, I'm pretty befuddled. It is hard to trace where the sources are getting their information. Separating out what is mistaken (if any of it) and what is accurate might at some point be more a matter of real (library and/or laboratory) research than just the kind of relatively simple searching for sources which I have been doing. Kingdon 02:23, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I would remove the info from this art, since to me it appears to be confused with another plant (Zanthoxylum) that is often given a simualr common name "Prickly Ash or Hercules club, Toothache tree" Hardyplants 02:38, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not much of an editor, but the opening paragraph says it's not the medicinal toothache tree. The final paragraph says it IS used medicinally for toothaches. And other medicinal uses are mentioned in the other paragraphs. Someone should clean this up. Steve8394 (talk) 15:25, 1 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Common name confusion[edit]

Our very first line in this article notes the common name of A. spinosa is "Devils Walkingstick." And then we go on to say it sometimes is called the Hercules Club, and confused with Z. clava-herculis, because they can be similar. Actually I live near examples of both trees and if they are similar it must be when they are young, because Z. clava-herculis is a big daggum tree and A. spinosa is a weedy little thing less than 15' tall. But that's beside the point. My problem is that in the body of the article we refer to this tree as "Hercules Club" again and again, and it just further embeds the confusion. Where I grew up this plant was always called Devils Walkingstick and that is how I know it. That is hardly cause to make this change, but it's clear from the beginning of the article, from other sources, and from the discussion here, that the problem is one of people applying the names and attributes of Z. clava-herculis to A. spinosa, and nothing else. This plant has a unique common name, and while some folks may call it by another name, it shares that name with another plant, and there is obvious confusion. The best thing we can do is call this Devil's Walkingstick throughout the article and mention the other names only as alternatives in relation to the confusion with Z. clava-herculis. So that's what I'm going to do. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thehappysmith (talk • contribs) 21:02, 6 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Photograph[edit]

The caption said it was taken at Nesmith, SC. According to the filename, the location was somewhere in Georgia. Corrected.Twistlethrop (talk) 18:08, 26 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]