Zamia herrerae

Zamia herrerae is a cycad of the Pacific coastal plain of Central America, from El Salvador to Guatemala and the Mexican state of Chiapas. This species of the genus Zamia, described in 1924 from a sterile plant collected near Sonsonate, in El Salvador, was the first Zamia recorded on the Pacific side of the isthmus. It has long, narrow, glossy leaflets, copes with a marked dry season and is rated Vulnerable by the IUCN.

Key facts about Zamia herrerae

  • Accepted name: Zamia herrerae S.Calderón & Standl. (1924), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) and by GBIF; POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: no synonym; plants were formerly identified as Zamia loddigesii (Vannini, 2019)
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: “camotillo” (Spanish, according to Vannini, 2019); no English name
  • Natural range: El Salvador (Sonsonate), Guatemala (Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu, Santa Rosa, Suchitepéquez), Mexico (Chiapas); north-western Nicaragua according to Vannini (2019)
  • IUCN status: Vulnerable (VU B1ab(iii,v)), 2022 assessment
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II (whole genus, since 1977; seeds exempt under annotation #4); Annex B in the European Union
  • Documented hardiness: no cold data; tolerates a marked dry season in the wild (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: evergreen and semi-deciduous tropical forest of the Pacific coastal plain and foothills (natural habitat); a good pot plant according to Vannini (2019)
  • Habit and adult size: few leaves with about fifty leaflets 15 to 22 cm long (original description); underground stem in the wild, short emergent stem with a full crown in cultivation (Vannini, 2019)
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Montgomery Botanical Center (two accession numbers), Fairchild, Lotusland, Brooklyn and two Hawaiian gardens; Sydney and Cairns; no British record
  • Toxicity: no data specific to the species; treat it as poisonous, like all cycads (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Zamia herrerae

The original description, published in 1924 by Paul C. Standley in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, is based on sterile material. It describes a plant with few leaves and a slender petiole barely half as long as the rachis, hairless and armed with a few stout, widely spaced prickles 1 to 2 mm long, which are also present on the rachis.

Each leaf carries about fifty almost linear leaflets, 15 to 22 cm long and 8 to 13 mm wide, with 17 to 21 veins, thick, very glossy and paler beneath. The margin bears a few teeth about 2 cm apart, pressed against the edge and ending in a spiny point; the lower third of the blade is entire, and the leaflets taper gradually from there to the tip. Cones and seeds were then unknown.

The naturalist Jay Vannini, who knows the species in the field and in cultivation, writes that it has an underground stem and few leaves in the wild, but forms a short emergent stem with a full crown of rather plumose leaves in cultivation (Vannini, 2019). The key to the Zamia of Chiapas published with Zamia grijalvensis in 2012 separates Zamia herrerae by its paper-thin leaflets, whereas Standley described them as thick: the two descriptions do not agree on this point.

Hybrids

No hybrid has been documented.

Possible confusion

According to Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues (2011), only three Zamia species live along the 2,000 km or so of Pacific coastal plain between Nayarit, in Mexico, and El Salvador: Zamia herrerae, Zamia paucijuga and Zamia soconuscensis. Provenance and a photograph of the leaflets and cones are essential to identify a plant. Standley considered the species well marked and without close relationship to the Zamia then known from Central America and Mexico.

Vannini (2019) points out that the plants were formerly identified as Zamia loddigesii, a similar-looking species of south-eastern Mexico that grows on the Gulf of Mexico side of the country, not on the Pacific slope.

Taxonomy

Zamia herrerae is an accepted name according to The World List of Cycads and GBIF; POWO could not be consulted directly. The name was published in 1924 by Salvador Calderón and Paul C. Standley, in the third instalment of “New species of plants from Salvador” (Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 14: 93–94). The type (S. Calderón 1682), collected on 17 July 1923 around Sonsonate, is kept at the United States National Herbarium (US). Standley noted that the species, known only from sterile material, probably represented the first Zamia recorded on the Pacific coast of Central America. The typification of Zamia names was revised by Stevenson and Sabato in 1986.

The species was treated in the revision of the Zamia of Mega-Mexico (Mexico and part of Central America) by Fernando Nicolalde-Morejón, Andrew Vovides and Dennis Stevenson (2009), which recognises 22 species in the region. A 2011 study, partly by the same authors, included it in a DNA barcoding test of Mexican and Central American Zamia. The transcriptome phylogeny of Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) sampled a plant from Sonsonate, in El Salvador. The name has not changed since 1924.

Etymology and history

The species honours Héctor Herrera, of Sonsonate, whom Standley describes as an enthusiastic scientist and a promoter of scientific work in El Salvador, and whose hospitality he had enjoyed during several stays. The collector of the type, Salvador Calderón, is co-author of the name.

Common names

Vannini (2019) gives it the Spanish name “camotillo”, without saying where it is used. No English name is attested.

In the wild

The World List of Cycads places the species in El Salvador (Sonsonate), Guatemala (Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu, Santa Rosa, Suchitepéquez) and Mexico (Chiapas). According to Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues (2011), it grows in evergreen and semi-deciduous tropical forest on the Pacific coastal plain, an area poor in Zamia; the Mexican and foreign herbaria surveyed in that study held only about fifteen collections of it.

Vannini (2019) describes it from Pacific coastal and foothill forests from Chiapas to north-western Nicaragua, a country not listed by The World List of Cycads, and calls it locally common in seasonally dry habitats at low elevations, notably in eastern Guatemala. In a private collection in Guatemala, within its natural range, it hosts populations of zamia butterflies (Eumaeus). Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) cite it among the Zamia adapted to seasonally dry habitats, which may become deciduous during periods of extreme drought (personal observation by A. Lindstrom).

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia herrerae is rated Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List, in the 2022 assessment by J.D. Bösenberg, under criteria B1ab(iii,v): a limited range, with a decline in habitat quality and in the number of mature individuals (The World List of Cycads; GBIF gives the same category; the Red List itself could not be consulted).

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, Zamia herrerae falls under CITES Appendix II, where the genus has been listed since 4 February 1977. International trade in live plants is therefore allowed, but requires an export permit from the country of origin. The listing carries annotation #4: seeds, pollen, and seedlings or tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers are not covered by CITES. In the European Union the species falls under Annex B of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, whose current list is set by Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026.

Species+ has no separate entry for the species, which is covered by the listing “Zamia spp.” (checked on 3 October 2026). This general information does not replace the official texts: check the regulations in force before buying or exchanging plants or seeds, and ask the seller for proof of origin.

Growing Zamia herrerae

Zamia herrerae is little grown outside Guatemala and El Salvador, for lack of seed-grown material and because of its unremarkable appearance. Vannini (2019) nevertheless finds it, from experience, very suitable as a pot plant and, when mass planted, as a tall ground cover; he illustrates a border planting of mature plants in a private collection in Guatemala, in an area where the species is native.

Its habitat, a partly deciduous lowland tropical forest, and its ability to shed its leaves in extreme droughts (Lindstrom and colleagues, 2024) show that it tolerates a marked dry season. No published source gives detailed growing advice for the species.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Outdoor planting is documented only within its natural range, in Guatemala (Vannini, 2019). In the absence of any cold data, it should be treated as a frost-tender tropical plant; its tolerance of a dry season suggests it would suit climates with a dry winter as long as they are frost-free, which is an inference, not an observation.

Container cultivation

Vannini (2019) considers it a very good pot plant. Under glass in temperate climates, the general advice for lowland tropical Zamia applies: a free-draining compost, warmth, and less water during a dry rest period. Nothing more specific has been published.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: present in several American and two Australian gardens; no British record.

  • United States: Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists two accession numbers under Zamia herrerae in its online catalogue, from 2012 and 2019, and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Coral Gables) lists it in its online catalogue (Garden Explorer, updated on 16 October 2026). BGCI also records it at Ganna Walska Lotusland (Santa Barbara, California), Brooklyn Botanic Garden (New York), the University of Hawaii at Hilo and the National Tropical Botanical Garden (Kalāheo, Hawaii) (queried on 25 October 2026).
  • United Kingdom: no record in BGCI or in the online catalogues of British gardens.
  • Australia: the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney lists it in its online catalogue (Garden Explorer, updated on 1 October 2026), and Cairns Botanic Gardens (Queensland) declares it to BGCI.

Outside these countries, BGCI lists gardens in Mexico (the Francisco Javier Clavijero botanical garden in Xalapa, and in Chiapas the Faustino Miranda botanical garden and the Soconusco regional botanical garden in Tapachula), El Salvador (La Laguna botanical garden, Antiguo Cuscatlán) and China (Fairy Lake, Shenzhen). A BGCI declaration shows that a garden held the plant at some point, not that it is alive there today, and the sources do not say whether these plants are grown outdoors or under glass.

Propagation

No data specific to the species. Like all Zamia, it has separate male and female plants, and propagation would be from seed of fertilised plants. Vannini (2019) attributes its scarcity in cultivation outside Central America to a lack of seed-grown material.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease has been documented in cultivation. In Guatemala, within its natural range, it hosts populations of zamia butterflies (Eumaeus) (Vannini, 2019).

Cold hardiness

No data exist on the tolerance of Zamia herrerae to cold or heat. In the wild it does tolerate a marked dry season, sometimes shedding its leaves (Lindstrom and colleagues, 2024). It is a species of the frost-free tropical coastal plain and foothills.

Mediterranean and European experience

No in-ground planting has been reported in France or elsewhere in Europe, and no dated frost episode concerns the species. For readers in Mediterranean-type climates such as California or southern Australia, it should be grown frost-free until trials are published.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record has been published. The British nursery Trebrown gives it cold hardiness zone 10a in its catalogue, without stating the basis of this commercial rating; it should not be taken as a measured limit. In the UK it needs a heated glasshouse.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia herrerae has been published. The risk is, however, documented in the genus and in other cycads: Zamia contain toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived, and for Zamia furfuracea the ASPCA cites cycasin and BMAA, a neurotoxic amino acid, with vomiting, bloody diarrhoea and liver damage in dogs, cats and horses; the seeds are the most dangerous part. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, treat the plant as poisonous: keep seeds and leaves out of reach of children and animals, and wear gloves to clean seeds. If any part is swallowed, contact a poison centre, a doctor or a vet straight away.

Traditional uses

No traditional use has been documented.

Frequently asked questions

Where does Zamia herrerae grow?

On the Pacific coastal plain and foothills of Central America: in El Salvador (Sonsonate), Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico, and, according to Vannini (2019), as far as north-western Nicaragua.

Why “herrerae”?

In honour of Héctor Herrera, of Sonsonate, a promoter of scientific work in El Salvador, who had welcomed Paul Standley.

How can it be recognised?

The original description gives about fifty narrow leaflets (8 to 13 mm), 15 to 22 cm long and glossy, with a few spiny teeth widely spaced along the upper two thirds. Cones were unknown in 1924. In cultivation it forms a short stem with a full crown of rather plumose leaves.

Is it the same as Zamia loddigesii?

No. The plants were formerly identified as Zamia loddigesii, a similar-looking species of the Gulf of Mexico side, but Zamia herrerae is a distinct species of the Pacific slope (Vannini, 2019; The World List of Cycads).

Is it endangered?

Yes. It has been rated Vulnerable (VU) by the IUCN since 2022.

Is it a good plant for a pot?

Yes, according to Vannini (2019), who finds it very suitable for pots and, mass planted, as a tall ground cover in tropical gardens.

Is it frost-hardy?

Unknown: no data exist. It comes from frost-free tropical lowlands with a dry season, so it should be kept frost-free.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Standley, P.C. (1924). New species of plants from Salvador. III. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 14(4): 93–99. [Protologue of Zamia herrerae Calderón & Standl.; full text consulted.]
  • Nicolalde-Morejón, F., Vovides, A.P. & Stevenson, D.W. (2009). Taxonomic revision of Zamia in Mega-Mexico. Brittonia 61(4): 301–335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12228-009-9077-9 [Regional revision; metadata checked on Crossref, not consulted (subscription access).]
  • Nicolalde-Morejón, F., González-Astorga, J., Vergara-Silva, F. & Vovides, A.P. (2011). Perspectivas sistemáticas de Zamia (Zamiaceae) en Megaméxico: de la taxonomía alfa a los códigos de barras genéticos. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 82(2): 341–355. [Full text consulted.]
  • Pérez-Farrera, M.Á., Vovides, A.P., Martínez-Camilo, R., Martínez-Meléndez, N., Gómez-Domínguez, H. & Galicia-Castellanos, S. (2012). Zamia grijalvensis sp. nov. (Zamiaceae, Cycadales) from Chiapas, Mexico with notes on hybridization and karyology. Nordic Journal of Botany 30(5): 565–570. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-1051.2012.01453.x [Key to the Zamia of Chiapas; full text read for the Zamia grijalvensis page.]
  • Vannini, J. (2019). Central American and Panamanian cycads in field and greenhouse. Exotica Esoterica, 17 February 2019. [Online article by a naturalist and collector; read.]
  • Lindstrom, A., Habib, S., Dong, S., Gong, Y., Liu, J., Calonje, M., Stevenson, D. & Zhang, S. (2024). Transcriptome sequencing data provide a solid base to understand the phylogenetic relationships, biogeography and reticulated evolution of the genus Zamia L. (Cycadales: Zamiaceae). Annals of Botany 134(5): 747–768. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcae065 [Species adapted to seasonally dry habitats, leaf loss in extreme drought; sample from Sonsonate; full text consulted.]
  • Stevenson, D.W. & Sabato, S. (1986). Typification of names in Zamia L. and Aulacophyllum Regel (Zamiaceae). Taxon 35(3): 134–144. [Cited by The World List of Cycads; not consulted.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Zamia herrerae. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T42154A69839320. [Assessment cited by The World List of Cycads; Red List page not consulted.]
  • Calonje, M., Stevenson, D.W. & Osborne, R. (2026). The World List of Cycads, version 2026.08.15. Montgomery Botanical Center, Coral Gables. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21958524 [Reference checklist; consulted directly.]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.550.1.1 [Source of the etymologies given by The World List of Cycads; not consulted directly.]