Hi everyone, I'm a new poster here and a relatively new gardener (although my wife is a fairly experienced gardener). I love Sichuan cuisine, especially the hot-numbing mala characteristics of it, so for awhile I've wanted to plant a couple of Sichuan pepper trees in our yard (we're in Maryland, about zone 7a, and by all accounts they'd do very well in this climate). We have plenty of room for them, but we also planted apple trees just last year. My wife is concerned that the Sichuan pepper trees might cross-pollinate with the apple trees and give the apples an unappealing taste.

Is this actually possible? If so, is there a "minimum safe distance" that we could plan between the two sets of trees so as to minimize the risk?

Thank you!

There are several species of Zanthoxylum ranging fro a small tree ( Z. piperitum)to a small shrub(Z. schinifolium). In any event they are not even in the same genus as an apple so no danger of crossing. Crossng only matters in the next generation anyway for most plants.

Thank you!