Zamia macrochiera

Zamia macrochiera is a large-leaved cycad of the western Amazon, known from north-eastern Peru, around Pebas and Pucaurquillo on the río Ampiyacu in the region of Loreto, and from the Colombian department of Amazonas, where it grows in humid lowland forest and secondary forest between about 70 and 300 m above sea level. Described in 2004, this species of the genus Zamia has an underground stem and owes its name to the large, gland-like collar at the base of each leaflet, a feature it shares only with Zamia manicata. The IUCN rates it Endangered (2022 assessment), and it has rarely been collected.

Key facts about Zamia macrochiera

  • Accepted name: Zamia macrochiera D.W.Stev. (2004), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), by GBIF and by the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, on which POWO is based; POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: none
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no name attested; the Red Book of the endemic plants of Peru gives its common name as “desconocido” (unknown)
  • Natural range: Peru (Loreto, province of Maynas) and Colombia (Amazonas); 100 to 300 m in the original description, herbarium collections from 70 to 250 m
  • IUCN status: Endangered (EN B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii)), 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 data (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, humid lowland forest on non-flooding ground and secondary forest; no growing advice published for the species
  • Habit and adult size: underground stem 10 to 20 cm in diameter; 1 to 3 leaves 0.5 to 3.5 m long with 10 to 30 pairs of leaflets up to 45 cm long and 15 cm wide
  • In the UK, US and Australia: no garden declares it to BGCI
  • Toxicity: no data specific to the species; treat it as poisonous, like all cycads (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Zamia macrochiera

The decisive feature is at the base of the leaflets. Among all cycads, only Zamia macrochiera and Zamia manicata carry each adult leaflet on a short stalk (petiolule) with a gland-like collar on its lower side; in Zamia macrochiera this collar is a well-developed flap of tissue that curves upwards to meet the leaf blade, forming a small tunnel (Stevenson, 2004). The original description, published by Dennis Wm. Stevenson in 2004 (pages 185 to 187, figure 14.7), gives the following measurements:

  • Stem: underground, subcylindrical to cylindrical, 10 to 20 cm in diameter; cataphylls triangular at the base and long-acuminate, 3 to 8 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide.
  • Leaves: 1 to 3, 0.5 to 3.5 m long; petiole 0.2 to 2 m long, slightly to densely prickly; rachis often prickly in its lower third, with 10 to 30 pairs of leaflets.
  • Leaflets: oblong to long-elliptic, wedge-shaped at the base, acute to acuminate at the tip, toothed in the upper third; the larger median leaflets 20 to 45 cm long and 5 to 15 cm wide, each on a distinct petiolule with the collar described above.
  • Male cones: cream to tan, cylindrical, 4 to 6 cm long and 1 to 1.5 cm in diameter, on a long peduncle of 15 to 30 cm.
  • Female cones: wine-red to dark reddish brown, cylindrical to ovoid-cylindrical, 10 to 15 cm long and 4 to 7 cm in diameter.
  • Seeds: red, 1 to 1.5 cm long and 0.5 to 0.8 cm in diameter.
  • Chromosomes: 2n = 18, according to a personal communication from the Italian botanist Aldo Moretti (1993) cited in the description.

Stevenson adds a warning for anyone trying to identify a young plant: the petiolule and collar are absent from seedling leaves, only tiny on juvenile leaves and distinct only on adult leaves, and a transplanted adult may fail to produce them on its first leaves after the move (Stevenson, 2004). The Red Book of the endemic plants of Peru describes it simply as a herbaceous plant with an underground stem (León, 2006).

Hybrids

No hybrid, natural or raised in cultivation, is documented.

Possible confusion

The only species with the same leaflet structure is Zamia manicata, from north-western Colombia and eastern Panama. Stevenson (2004) separates the two by the shape of the collar, a simple rim in Zamia manicata and a large flap curving up to the blade in Zamia macrochiera; the leaves and female cones of Zamia macrochiera are also much larger. The two species live far apart, on either side of the Andes.

Within its own region, Zamia macrochiera is one of the ten Zamia accepted from the Amazon basin, which Segalla and colleagues (2023) describe as the least understood group in the genus: Zamia amazonum, Zamia boliviana, Zamia brasiliensis, Zamia hymenophyllidia, Zamia lecointei, Zamia lindosensis, Zamia macrochiera, Zamia poeppigiana, Zamia ulei and Zamia urep. None of the others has a collar at the base of its leaflets. On young plants, which do not yet show it, the place of origin remains the best guide.

Taxonomy

Zamia macrochiera is an accepted name according to The World List of Cycads, GBIF and the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, on which POWO is based (read on GBIF, version of 4 June 2026); POWO itself could not be consulted. It was described in 2004 by Dennis Wm. Stevenson, of the New York Botanical Garden, in his chapter on the Zamiaceae of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru in the book Cycad Classification: Concepts and Recommendations, edited by Tim Walters and Roy Osborne. The name is attributed to Stevenson alone in the original publication (“D.W. Stevenson, species nova”), by The World List of Cycads and by the World Checklist of Vascular Plants; some secondary websites add the name of Sabato (“D.W.Stev. & Sabato”), which none of these sources supports. The short Latin diagnosis compares the new species with Zamia manicata, from which it differs above all by the gland-like collar at the base of the leaflets. Stevenson also identifies it with the undescribed species discussed by Wrinkle in 1993. It has no synonym.

Relationships. According to Segalla and colleagues (2023), most of the Amazonian Zamia studied genetically form a natural group. Zamia macrochiera, however, is one of the nine accepted species that the transcriptome phylogeny of Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) could not sample, so its relationship with Zamia manicata, which shares its unusual leaflet collar, has not been tested by that study.

Etymology and history

The epithet combines the Greek makrós, “large”, and chiera, “hand”, and refers to the large, gland-like collar at the base of the leaflets (Stevenson, 2004; The World List of Cycads, after Haynes, 2022).

The type was collected on 14 September 1989 in Peru, in the province of Maynas (Loreto), on the río Ampiyacu near Pebas, at 130 m, by Dennis Wm. Stevenson, L. Gaudio, Aldo Moretti and J.P. Sclavo (number 1160). The label of the specimen, published through GBIF, places it in secondary forest, about a walk north of the village of Pucaurquillo. The holotype is at the New York Botanical Garden (NY); the original description lists isotypes at the Herbarium of the Peruvian Amazon (AMAZ), Fairchild (FTG), New York and Utrecht (U), and The World List of Cycads adds the Missouri Botanical Garden (MO).

The plant had been collected well before it was named. The description cites as paratypes a collection by M. Mathias from the río Napo and three collections made around Pebas by Timothy Plowman and colleagues (numbers 6937, 7254 and 7275); the duplicates of the last two kept at Kew date from May 1977, name Richard Evans Schultes and Óscar Tovar as co-collectors and place them around Pebas and Pucaurquillo. In 2004 Stevenson noted that the species had been collected only four times in 25 years, always near the type locality, and that he had seen seedlings there but only one seed cone. Two years later, the Peruvian Red Book stated that the most recent known collection in the country still seemed to be the type (León, 2006).

Common names

No common name is attested. The Red Book of the endemic plants of Peru gives it as “desconocido”, unknown (León, 2006).

In the wild

The World List of Cycads places Zamia macrochiera in Peru (Loreto) and in Colombia (Amazonas). The original description puts it in rainforest and secondary forest between 100 and 300 m in a limited area of Peru (Stevenson, 2004), and the Peruvian Red Book, which still treated it as endemic to Peru, knew three localities, all in the Amazon basin, in humid Amazonian forest between 100 and 300 m and outside any protected area (León, 2006).

The herbarium records published through GBIF fill in the picture. In Peru, besides the collections from Pebas and Pucaurquillo on the río Ampiyacu, a 1991 collection comes from the Quebrada Sucusarí, near the Napo, at 140 m. In Colombia, the Colombian Amazonian Herbarium (COAH) holds a 1999 collection from the Putumayo basin, on the río Alegría, at 250 m, and a 2019 collection from a forest management area in Amazonas, in tierra firme forest on a middle terrace, between 70 and 120 m; The World List of Cycads illustrates this last collection with four photographs. The species thus reaches lower elevations than the 100 m given in 2004, and its range extends well beyond the type locality, but it remains known from very few sites. Its pollinators and phenology have not been documented.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia macrochiera is rated Endangered (EN) by the IUCN under criteria B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii), in an assessment by Cristina López-Gallego published in 2022 (The World List of Cycads; reference checked on Crossref): a small extent of occurrence and area of occupancy, few locations and a continuing decline in the quality of its habitat. An earlier assessment by Dennis Wm. Stevenson was published in 2010; its category could not be checked at the source, as the Red List itself could not be consulted. In Peru, the 2006 Red Book rated it Endangered (EN, B1a) at national level and reported illegal collection of Zamia plants for the ornamental trade in the country (León, 2006). As early as 2004, Stevenson considered the species threatened by continual disturbance of its habitat: the type locality, a secondary forest, was then being turned into a communal garden.

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, which is in Appendix I, Zamia macrochiera is covered by the listing of the genus in CITES Appendix II, in force since 4 February 1977. Annotation #4 (the version adopted at CoP20, in force on 5 March 2026) exempts seeds, pollen, seedlings and tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers, and cut flowers of artificially propagated plants; international trade in the plants themselves requires an export permit. 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+, the official CITES database, names the species and confirms this status (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, ask the seller for proof of origin and prefer plants raised from cultivated seed.

Growing Zamia macrochiera

No growing advice specific to Zamia macrochiera has been published, and no botanical garden declares it. Simon Lavaud, of the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu, includes it among the Zamia of the lowland forests of Central and South America, a group he rates as difficult outside the tropics. He uses the climate of Iquitos, in Peru, where Zamia macrochiera grows alongside Zamia hymenophyllidia and Zamia ulei, as an example: night minima around 23 °C (73 °F), daytime maxima around 30 °C (86 °F), about 2,900 mm of rain a year and air humidity of 88 to 91 per cent. For the whole group he advises a free-draining, neutral to acid compost and water, night temperatures around 22 °C (72 °F), with brief drops to about 15 °C (59 °F) tolerated, daytime temperatures of 28 to 30 °C (82 to 86 °F) and air humidity of 70 to 90 per cent, in a glasshouse, conservatory or heated growing room (Lavaud, 2023). This is advice for the group, not the result of trials with this species.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Only a hot, humid, frost-free equatorial climate comes close to its habitat, an understorey of lowland Amazonian forest. No garden is known to grow it in the open.

Container cultivation

Elsewhere it is a plant for a heated, humid glasshouse. Its very long leaves, up to 3.5 m, call for space; a free-draining compost, constant warmth and high humidity follow from Lavaud’s advice for its group.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: no garden declares it.

  • United States: no record in BGCI and no entry in the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (queried on 25 October 2026); one of the isotypes is kept in the herbarium of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, in Florida, which is a dried specimen, not a living plant.
  • United Kingdom: no record in BGCI or in the online catalogues of British gardens; duplicates of the 1977 collections are kept in the herbarium at Kew.
  • Australia: no record in BGCI.

Propagation

No data specific to the species. Like all Zamia, it has separate male and female plants and is propagated from fresh seed; Stevenson saw seedlings at the type locality but only a single seed cone. Given its rarity, any material should come from documented, legal sources.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species has been documented. In cultivation, Zamia are chiefly at risk from rot in cold, waterlogged compost and from scale insects.

Cold hardiness

No data exist on the cold tolerance of Zamia macrochiera. It grows in the Amazon lowlands under a hot, very humid climate with stable temperatures, and nothing suggests that it can take frost; Lavaud’s figures for Iquitos, with nights rarely below 23 °C (73 °F), show how far its habitat is from temperate climates.

Mediterranean and European experience

No cultivation result has been published in France or elsewhere in Europe, either in the ground or in a pot, and no dated frost episode concerns the species. For readers in Mediterranean-type climates such as California or southern Australia, it remains a plant for a heated glasshouse.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record exists, and no garden in these countries declares it.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia macrochiera has been published. The risk is, however, well documented in cycads: Zamia contain toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived, a compound toxic to the liver and nervous system, and the ASPCA cites cycasin and BMAA, a neurotoxic amino acid, for Zamia furfuracea, which it lists as toxic to 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 use is documented for this species.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Zamia macrochiera mean?

“Large hand”, from Greek. The name refers to the large, gland-like collar at the base of the leaflets.

How can it be told from Zamia manicata?

By the collar at the base of the leaflets. In Zamia macrochiera it is a large flap that curves up to the blade, forming a tunnel; in Zamia manicata it is a simple rim. Zamia macrochiera also has much larger leaves and female cones, and it grows in the Amazon, east of the Andes.

Where does it grow?

In the western Amazon: in Peru around Pebas and Pucaurquillo on the río Ampiyacu and near the Napo, and in the Colombian department of Amazonas, in humid lowland forest between about 70 and 300 m.

Is it endangered?

Yes. The IUCN rates it Endangered (2022 assessment); it is known from few sites, and its type locality was being cleared in 2004.

Why is so little known about it?

Because it has rarely been collected: four times in 25 years according to its 2004 description, with only one seed cone ever seen by its author. Colombian herbarium collections from 1999 and 2019 have since extended its known range.

Can it be bought?

In practice, no. No botanical garden declares it and no nursery is known to offer it; it is covered by CITES Appendix II, seeds being exempt under annotation #4.

Is it hardy?

No. No cold data exist, but it is a plant of the Amazon lowlands, where night temperatures rarely fall below 23 °C (73 °F).

Is it poisonous?

It must be assumed so. No analysis specific to the species exists, but the cycads studied contain serious toxins, mainly in the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Stevenson, D.W. (2004). Zamiaceae of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. In: Walters, T. & Osborne, R. (eds), Cycad Classification: Concepts and Recommendations. CABI Publishing, Wallingford: 173–194 (Zamia macrochiera: 185–187, fig. 14.7). [Original description; pages 185–187 read in the copy published by The Cycad Society.]
  • León, B. (2006). Zamiaceae endémicas del Perú. In: León, B. and colleagues (eds), El libro rojo de las plantas endémicas del Perú. Revista Peruana de Biología 13(2), special issue: 920s. [Full text read.]
  • Segalla, R., Pimenta, R.S. & Calonje, M. (2023). Zamia multidentata (Cycadales, Zamiaceae), a new arborescent species of Zamia from Acre, Brazil. Phytotaxa 598(1): 21–31. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.598.1.2 [Peer-reviewed article; full text 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 [Full text read on PubMed Central.]
  • López-Gallego, C. (2022). Zamia macrochiera. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T42112A69833267. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T42112A69833267.en [Current assessment; reference given by The World List of Cycads and checked on Crossref; Red List page not consulted.]
  • Stevenson, D.W. (2010). Zamia macrochiera. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T42112A10650637. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T42112A10650637.en [Earlier assessment; reference checked on Crossref; not consulted.]
  • 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.]
  • 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.]