Zanthoxylum foliolosum Donn. Sm., Bot. Gaz. (Crawfordsville) 18: 1. 1893;Z. nubium Standl. & Steyerm.; Z. harmsianum Loes.

High lianas creciendo hasta el dosel del bosque o bejucos forming mats, troncos y ramas armadas de acúleos, ramitas and leaf rachis with numerous downward curving spines, without short-shoots, without zig-zag growth form; apical bud ca 0.6 mm wide, with few tufts of ferrugineous hairs; ramitas 1-2 mm wide, glabrous. Hojas alternately evenly distributed, imparipinnadas, 10.5-25 cm de largo, rachis margined, 0.6-1.3 mm wide; folíolos 17-43, lateral folíolos oblongos, 0.7-2 cm de largo y 0.5-1.1 cm de ancho, ápice acute, rounded or obtuse, emarginate, base rounded, margen serrate, with a pair of glandular teeth at base 0.15-0.6 mm de largo folded over abaxail surface, glabrous, chartaceous, 2-5 pairs of secondary veins, sésiles. Panículas axilares, ca 19 cm de largo, 2-4 times branched, rachis terete, sparse puberulentas, pedicels ca 1.3 mm de largo y ca 0.2 mm wide, sparse puberulentas; flowers 4-merous; sépalos lanceolate, 1/4 length of petals, glabrous, persistent; pétalos ca 1.3 mm de largo; carpels 2. Folículos 1 or 2, or 1 and remains of one aborted, libres, 5-6 mm de largo, glabros, without sipte; seeds 4-5 mm de largo.

Rara, en bosques húmedos, zona norcentral; 1200–1500 m; fl oct, fr abr, may, oct; Moreno 7982, Stevens 15101; México to Nicaragua. Specimens from Nicaragua are consistent in having small (up to 2 cm long) and numerous (over 15), serrate leaflets, however in Guatemala and Honduras leaflets can be much larger (to 4 cm) and less numerous (as few as 5) and with margins crennate, serrulate or entire.