Pepperwood or Hercules Club
Note Profile
About
Pepperwood, or Hercules club, is the leaf and bark of a thorny southern US prickly ash. It smells of lime: sharp, bitter-edged citrus over a dry bark base, with the aromatic spice bite the Zanthoxylum genus is known for.
Scent Profile
Citrus leads and it is the one claim all three independent publishers make. Woodlanders calls the leaves 'citrus-scented', the Native Plant Society of Texas says 'crushing its leaves releases a distinct citrus-like fragrance', and Eat The Weeds narrows it: 'some say its smells like lime, others bitter lime'. Fresh_spice is the genus character plus Sheffield's 'aromatic bitter oil xanthoxylin'. Dry_woody is the bark, which two sources name as a source of the odour alongside the leaf, and it is what puts the note in Fragrantica's Woods and mosses group rather than with the citruses. Sour is the word bitter in 'bitter lime', held below the citrus it modifies. Cooling_mentholic carries the 'toothache drops' and anaesthetic-gel comparison, kept low because one blogger makes it and nobody corroborates it. Green and aromatic_herbal are the crushed leaf itself. Warm_spice sits and no further, because no source describes heat.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
Origin
Zanthoxylum clava-herculis, a thorny Rutaceae tree of the southern United States, sold under the names Hercules club, pepperwood, sea ash and southern prickly ash. It is a true Zanthoxylum, kin to sichuan pepper and Japanese sansho. It is not the Californian tree Umbellularia californica that also carries the trade name pepperwood. The scented parts are the crushed leaf and the broken bark. Sheffield's Seed Co. states that 'the entire plant, including the roots and bark, contain aromatic bitter oil xanthoxylin'. No supplier sells an essential oil of this species as a fragrance material, so the note is a plant reference rather than a traded extract.
Usage in Perfumery
Measured 2026-08-30: 18 Fragrantica placements, filed under Woods and mosses, and none on Parfumo. Use it where a citrus top has to sit on wood rather than on a fruit, or where a peppery lift is wanted without black pepper's heat.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Pepperwood or Hercules Club
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Pepperwood or Hercules Club appears prominently.
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