Toothache tree added to Champion Tree list

Paula Vizinat stands next to the Louisiana Champion Hercules Club tree, also known as the toothache tree for its numbing properties if bark or leaf is chewed, with her English Setters Patch, from left, and Luz. The tree is on property that has been in Vizinat's family for decades. (Submitted photo)

Sometimes landowners find a nugget of interest in their forest that they never knew was there. For Paula Vizinat, it was the toothache tree.

The Hercules Club, Zanthoxylum clava-herculis, is a new species added to the Louisiana Champion Tree listing.

The toothache tree champion is on a portion of woods that once was a 50-acre stretch of woods in southern Rapides Parish that has been in her family for more than a century.

“My great-grandmother planted cedar trees along the road of the original 50 acres in the early 1900s,” she said. “I grew up on that property with my brother and cousins, running in the woods, hunting and fishing in Bayou Cocoderie.”

Now, Vizinat and her family own about 8 and a half acres of that land. It is a place where she and her husband, sons and grandchildren still make trips to, spending the day in the woods hunting or just enjoying the outdoors.

Rick Williams, state forester for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Louisiana, had visited the property at Vizinat’s request.

“I was walking Ms. Vizinat’s property discussing NRCS programs primarily the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) about planting some trees on a portion of the property along with planting some pollinator habitat benefiting many species of wildlife,” Williams said.

During that walk to evaluate the area’s bottomland hardwood forest, Williams said he noticed the toothache tree.

“The tree stuck out because of its size and characteristics,” he said. “I did not have my measuring tapes during our initial walk in the woods, but I did go back with the proper measuring devices and took the measurements of this tree.”

Vizinat said her long-term goal for the property was to make it special for her grandchildren to enjoy.

“That tree was just a bonus ,” Vizinat said. “I really didn’t know about it.”

The Hercules Club gets its common name because of the distinctive spiny trunk. It gets its nickname the toothache tree because chewing on its leaves or bark causes numbness to the mouth, teeth and tongue. It was used by American Indians and early settlers for its medicinal reasons.

Vizinat said she told her son about the tree recently and, being “kind of a risk-taker,” he carved a small piece of bark from a toothache tree and chewed on it.

“He said it will mess you up,” Vizinat quipped. “He said his whole mouth was numb.”

As for Vizinat giving the toothache remedy a try, probably not. “I’m not a risk-taker.”

Now, the cherished 8 and a half acres are kept for sentimental reasons. It’s a place she is preparing for the next generation to grow up and love for many more years.

And, as an added bonus, the Vizinat forest can boast the new Louisiana Champion Hercules Club or toothache tree.