Discovering the Toothache Tree on the Outer Banks

Born in Williamston, NC, Rita Weaver Mizell and husband Dave resided in Elizabeth City before eventually moving to Southern Shores and operating the Nags Head Fishing Pier until their retirement.

It was while working as a free-lance photographer and writer on the Outer Banks in the 1980s, that Rita Mizell stumbled upon a relatively scarce tree specimen, Southern Prickly Ash, more commonly referred to as “the Toothache Tree”.

A native of North Carolina, the tree is widely scattered to limited locations on the Outer Banks.
Historical literature relevant to the arrival of the first colonists on the North Carolina coast bears witness to the use of the bark of this tree by native populations. Further record is provided in the writings of naturalist John Lawson.

Chewing the bark releases chemicals giving speedy relief to the pain of toothache.
Mizell’s volume, Encounter with the Toothache Tree on the Outer Banks (Carolina Banks Publishing, 1986) chronicles available research and locations of existing tree specimens found primarily in Dare County in the late 1980s.

To learn more about native plant species here in North Carolina, visit the North Carolina Collection on the third floor of Joyner Library. We specialize in all things printed relating to the “Old North State” and particularly all that local history, genealogy, and lore that so definitively captures our own eastern North Carolina.

Pages 24-25 from Encounter with The Toothache Tree on the Outer Banks. NC Stacks QK495.R98 M58 1986