Zanthoxylum nicaraguense Standl. & L.O. Williams, Ceiba 3: 207. 1953.
Arboles, 3–8 m de alto, troncos y ramas armados con acúleos, ramitas, leaf rachis and leaflet's midrib rarely with few straight spines, without short-shots or short-shots elongating into lateral branchlets, without zig-zag growth form; apical bud 0.7-3 mm wide, puberulent; ramitas 1-1.25 mm wide, minutely puberulent soon glabrous. Hojas alternately evenly distributed or clustered apically on lateral branchlets, imparipinnadas, 5-8 cm long, rachis margined to narrowly winged, 1-2 mm wide; folíolos 11-19, lateral folíolos generally inaequilateral oblongos or elliptic, 0.6-1.5 cm de largo y 0.4-0.6 cm de ancho, ápice redondeado and usually also emarginate, base inaequilaterally acute to obuse and truncate, obtuse or rounded, margen entero, rarely at base with a tooth ca 3 mm on proximal side folded over abaxial surface, glabrous, chartaceous, 2-4 pairs of secondary veins, sésiles. Simple spikes, axilares, 0.5-1 cm de largo, rachis terete, puberulent; flowers sessile, 4-merous; sepals ovate, 1/2 length of petals, puberulent, persistent; pétalos ca 2.2 mm de largo; carpels 2. Folículos 1, or 1 and scar of lost developing folículo, free, 4.5-5 mm de largo, glabrous, stipe ca 2 mm de largo; seed ca 3.5 mm de largo.
Poco común, bosques secos, zona norcentral; 1100–1300 m; fl dic, fr nov; Moreno 22701, Stevens 16043; Nicaragua and El Salvador. This species was treated by Reynel (1995) within his very variable concept of Z. fagara. In Z. fagara, he suggested three infraspecies (combinations not published) with Z. nicaraguense placed in synonymy of the infraspecies based on Fagara lentiscifolia Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd. and treated here as Z. culantrillo. However Zanthoxylum nicaraguense in unsual within this group in its very small, oblong, entire leaflets and small, unbranched inflorescences. It seems most similar to specimens of Z. affine Kunth (treated by Reynel, 1995, as a synonym of Z. fagara ssp. fagara) differing from this in having few straight branchlet spines versus branchlet spines numerous and downward curing.