Against sunlight the leaf of Zanthoxylum capense shows its cream coloured leaf venation and winged rachis clearly. The gland dots along the leaflet margins are also translucent. The leaflets occur in pairs; the terminal one terminates precipitately, i.e. the leaflet at the tip is soon gone.

Leaflets have no petiolules (leaflet stalks), while the entire leaf itself has a petiole of about 1 cm. There are sometimes small spines along the rachis of the leaf. The leaflets in picture are symmetric; the lateral ones may also be asymmetric (Coates Palgrave, 2002).