Zanthoxylum caribaeum Lam., Encycl. 2: 39. 1786; Z. elephantiasis Macfad.; Z. gentlei Lundell.

Arboles, 5–16 m de alto, troncos armados con acúleos, ramitas sometimes with a few straight spines, rarely with spines on leaf rachis, without short-shoots, without zig-zag growth form; apical bud ca 2-3 mm wide, glabrous; ramitas 5-7 mm wide, glabrous. Hojas alternately evenly distributed, imparipinnadas, 15-27 cm de largo; rachis terete, 1-2.5 mm de ancho; folíolos 5-15, lateral folíolos inaequilateral, wide elípticos (less frequently elliptic or obovate), 4-12.5 cm de largo y 1.5-4 cm de ancho, ápice agudo and cuspidate or acuminado, base obtuse or acute or with one side acute and the other obtuse, decurrent along length of petioule, margen crenado, often grossly, slightly revolute at least at base, glabrous, chartaceous, 8-12 pairs of secondary veins; petioules 1-8 mm de largo. Panículas terminales y subterminal, 2.5-15 cm de largo, 2 to 4 times branched, rachis more or less corky, cracking transversely and exfoliating in scales, glabrous, pedicels 0-1 mm de largo y 1-1.3 mm de ancho, texture like rachis, glabrous; flowers 5-merous; sépalos suborbicular, 1/3 to 1/2 length of pétalos, glabrous, margin irregularly toothed, persistent; pétalos ca 3 mm de largo; carpels (3-) 5.  Folículos 1-5, with scars of 1-4 aborted carpels, free, 5-6 mm de largo, glabrous, stipe 1.3-3 mm de largo; seeds 4-5 mm de largo,

Poco frecuente, bosques húmedos, zonas norcentral y pacífica; 40-1350 m; fl abr-may, fr sep–dic, abr; Moreno 20365, 25128; Mexico to Argentina, West Indies. In the printed version of the Flora de Nicaragua the name Z. caribaeum was misapplied to specimens of Z. culantrillo, which differs in having the leaf rachis winged, the flowers 4-merous and the fruits with only 1 or 2 follicles. Specimens from Caribbean coast of Mexico and Belize differ in having numerous axillary inflorescences in addition to the terminal and subterminal inflorescences. Reynel (1995) suggested that some of the material from the southern part of the range might better be treated as a subspecies (unpublished) based on the shallower leaflet margin crenations. Z. caribaeum was treated as Z. elephantiasis in the published Flora de Nicaragua.