A deciduous tree up to 30 m tall, sometimes suckering from roots, forming dense thickets. Leaves are alternate, deciduous, pinnately compound with 13-20 leaflets bearing a pair of black tipped glands at the leaf base, which is often lobed. Twigs are very stout, usually curved upwards at the tips and with a semi-circular leaf scar and light brown pith. Bark is gray and smooth. Flowers are dioecious; small yellow-green, in long (6 to 12 inches) clusters, males have a disagreeable odor, appearing in late spring to early summer. Fruit is a single bright yellow to brown samara with the seed in the center.

Antispasmodic, astringent, bitter, cardiac depressant, diuretic, emetic, febrifuge, rubefacient and vermifuge (root and stem bark); emmenagogue, bechic, deobstruent and ophthalmic (fruit); astringent (leaves); as a wash for parasitic ulcers, itch, and eruptions (leaves, bark of the trunk, and roots)

Trees of Alabama and the Southeast
PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation
AgroForestryTree Database
Plants For A Future database

Ailanthone (fruit); ailanthinone (bark); beta-sitosterol, calcium oxalate, canthin-6-one, fisetin, gallic acid (plant); isoquercitrin, quercetin, scopoletin, tannin (leaves)

To treat diarrhoea and dysentery and sometimes against tapeworms (stem bark); used for cough, gastric and intestinal upsets, cardiac palpitations, asthma and epilepsy (root bark); for cough and irregularity of menstruation (decoction of fruit); applied in lotions prescribed for seborrhoea and scabies (leaves).