Zamia magnifica

Zamia magnifica is a cliff-dwelling cycad from southern Mexico, known from a single locality in the La Chinantla region of the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, where it grows on rock faces in lowland rainforest at 80 to 100 m above sea level. Described only in 2023, this species of the genus Zamia hangs its pendent leaves down the cliffs; they can exceed 2.5 m, the largest of any Mexican Zamia, and emerge pink and densely woolly before turning caramel. The IUCN has not yet assessed it, but the botanists who described it consider it Critically Endangered.

Key facts about Zamia magnifica

  • Accepted name: Zamia magnifica Pérez-Farr., Gut.Ortega & Calonje (2023), registered by IPNI and accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) 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, in English or in Spanish
  • Natural range: Mexico, Oaxaca: a single population in the La Chinantla region (Sierra Norte, municipality of Santiago Tuxtepec), at 80 to 100 m
  • IUCN status: Not Evaluated (The World List of Cycads); Critically Endangered (CR) proposed by the authors of the description
  • 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, cliffs of sedimentary rock in karst country, on slopes of 40 to 45 degrees, in tropical rainforest; no growing advice published
  • Habit and adult size: underground or decumbent stem 10 to 38 cm long and 10 to 17 cm thick, often branched in old plants; 3 or 4 pendent leaves 1.6 to 3.2 m long
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Montgomery Botanical Center, Florida (three accessions registered in 2023); none recorded in the UK or Australia
  • Toxicity: no data specific to the species; treat it as poisonous; local people use the crushed seeds to poison flies (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Zamia magnifica

Four characters taken together identify it, according to the original description (Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2023): a rupicolous habit, growing on rock; pendent leaves whose leaflets emerge densely woolly and pink to caramel; broad, oblong leaflets of leathery texture with a few weak teeth; and female cones on short stalks. The detailed description gives:

  • Stem: thick, underground, upright or decumbent, single or much branched, 10 to 38 cm long and 10 to 17 cm in diameter; persistent brown cataphylls, very woolly when they emerge.
  • Leaves: 3 or 4 per stem, pendent, 160.8 to 324 cm long and 38.7 to 60 cm wide; whitish pink and densely hairy when emerging, then caramel-coloured, finally dark green and sparsely hairy when mature.
  • Petiole and rachis: cylindrical petiole 57.3 to 87 cm long with a few tiny prickles; rachis 93 to 206 cm long, unarmed or nearly so.
  • Leaflets: 10 to 17 pairs, oblong to oblanceolate, subcoriaceous and clearly convex, with an acute to rounded tip finely crenate-toothed in the upper quarter; median leaflets 29.8 to 47.7 cm long and 6 to 11.1 cm wide, spaced 5 to 13.1 cm apart.
  • Male cones: 1 to 3, cylindrical, erect, 10.75 to 15 cm long and 1.9 to 2.33 cm in diameter, light green becoming tan, light brown or light orange at maturity, on a woolly peduncle 3.2 to 5.5 cm long.
  • Female cone: single, cylindrical, erect, 9.1 to 15.8 cm long and 7.2 to 7.8 cm in diameter, yellowish when mature, with a pointed tip.
  • Seeds: ovate, with an orange-red sarcotesta, 18.6 to 23.5 mm long and 12.5 to 15.2 mm in diameter, among the largest of the Mexican Zamia according to the authors.

The article has a few internal inconsistencies, which the reader should know about: the abstract and the diagnosis give the female cone a peduncle shorter than 4 cm, whereas the detailed description and the comparison with Zamia furfuracea give 9.1 to 10 cm; the discussion gives leaves of 142 to 290 cm, against 160.8 to 324 cm in the description, and seeds of 1.9 to 2.4 cm by 1.1 to 1.5 cm, against 18.6 to 23.5 mm by 12.5 to 15.2 mm. Whatever the exact figure, the authors stress that Zamia magnifica has the largest leaves of all Mexican Zamia, ahead of Zamia splendens (about 2 m).

Hybrids

No hybrid, natural or horticultural, is documented. The species is known from a single population and is held in very few collections.

Possible confusion

According to its authors, Zamia magnifica is one of four Zamia in Mesoamerica that are strictly confined to cliffs, with Zamia cremnophila in Mexico, Zamia sandovalii in Honduras and Zamia meermanii in Belize. Its leaflets alone separate it from the first two: oblong to oblanceolate and finely crenate at the tip in Zamia magnifica, lanceolate and clearly toothed along the upper half in Zamia cremnophila and Zamia sandovalii.

It most resembles Zamia meermanii: pendent leaves, densely hairy and coloured when emerging, obovate to oblanceolate leaflets weakly toothed at the tip. The leaflets of Zamia meermanii are, however, concave and distinctly leathery, those of Zamia magnifica clearly convex and moderately leathery; the young leaves of Zamia magnifica are whitish pink then caramel, those of Zamia meermanii cream covered with saffron-orange hairs. Zamia magnifica is also much larger (leaves of 142 to 290 cm against 71 to 147 cm; median leaflets 29 to 48 cm by 6 to 11 cm, against 18 to 32 cm by 3.4 to 7.5 cm), its microsporophylls carry 18 to 24 pollen sacs in a single group (22 to 28 in two groups in Zamia meermanii), and its stem often branches with age.

Finally, it recalls Zamia furfuracea, the widely grown Mexican species, through its woolly young leaves and the shape of its leaflets. But Zamia furfuracea grows on the ground, on sand dunes, with spreading rather than pendent leaves, young leaves ochre to light brown rather than pink, female cones on longer, slimmer stalks (14 to 16 cm) and a far smaller size (leaves of 48 to 66 cm, leaflets of 10.5 to 16.5 cm in the populations measured). Of the twelve characters measured, eleven clearly separate Zamia magnifica from each of the two related species, and the discriminant analysis assigned every plant studied to the correct species.

Taxonomy

Zamia magnifica is an accepted name according to The World List of Cycads and the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, on which POWO is based (read on GBIF, version of 4 June 2026), and is registered by IPNI; POWO itself could not be consulted. It was described in the article “Zamia magnifica (Zamiaceae, Cycadales): a new rupicolous cycad species from Sierra Norte, Oaxaca, Mexico”, published on 8 May 2023 in the journal Taxonomy (volume 3, issue 2, pages 232 to 249) by Miguel Ángel Pérez-Farrera, José Said Gutiérrez-Ortega, Mauricio Gerónimo Martínez-Martínez and Michael Calonje; the name is attributed to three of them.

The type is the collection Pérez-Farrera 4285, a male plant, gathered on 3 August 2022 with Mauricio G. Martínez-Martínez and Diego Villar Morales in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, municipality of Santiago Tuxtepec, at 80 m; the holotype is kept at the Eizi Matuda herbarium (HEM) of the Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas, with isotypes at Xalapa (XAL) and Mexico City (MEXU). The name has no synonym.

Relationships. The species has not yet been included in any phylogenetic analysis; it is among the nine accepted species that Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) could not sample. Its authors place it, probably, in the “Furfuracea” subclade of the Mesoamerican Zamia, on the strength of its leaflet shape, its woolly young leaves and its distribution west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; they consider membership of the “Purpurea” clade, restricted to east of the isthmus, less likely (Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2023, after the phylogeny of Calonje and colleagues, 2019).

Etymology and history

The epithet magnifica, from the Latin magnificus, “magnificent”, refers to the remarkable beauty of the plant and its spectacular hanging leaves (Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2023).

The discovery is very recent. According to the authors, no herbarium specimen existed before their expedition of August 2022, which they made with local people who protect the plants, guided them to the site and decided themselves how much material could be taken (twelve leaves, two female cones and four male cones). The research was funded by the Plant Exploration Fund of Montgomery Botanical Center, in Florida. In 2024, Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues cited it as an example of new cycad populations found in Mexico in regions that had seemed well explored.

Common names

No common name is attested, in English, in Spanish or in a local language.

In the wild

Zamia magnifica is known from a single locality in the La Chinantla region, in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, between 80 and 100 m. It grows only on certain cliffs where the rock is exposed, on steep slopes of 40 to 45 degrees, often very hard to reach. The setting is tropical rainforest on karst relief, with lowland gallery forest, on sedimentary rocks, some of Cretaceous age, and metamorphic rocks; among the dominant plants are Swietenia macrophylla, Cedrela odorata, the palm Attalea butyracea and several Chamaedorea. It grows alongside Dioon spinulosum (Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2023). Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) cite it among the specialist lithophytes of the genus that grow on steep cliff faces, with Zamia cremnophila, Zamia meermanii and Zamia sandovalii.

The authors recall that La Chinantla has been proposed as a Neogene refuge, rich in ancient and endemic species, with about 1,021 plant species recorded, several cycads among them. They suggest that the rock-dwelling habit arose locally from a terrestrial ancestor, perhaps to escape competition from other plants, and that rodents, other small mammals or birds eating the flesh of the seeds deposit them in rock crevices; these dispersers remain unknown. Like other cycads, the species forms coralloid roots that host nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia magnifica has not yet been assessed by the IUCN (The World List of Cycads). Its authors propose classifying it as Critically Endangered (CR) because of its very restricted range: a single population of about 2,000 plants, including seedlings and juveniles, over an area of about 4,477 ha (44.8 km²). The plants are actively protected by local people, without whose agreement no study or collection is possible; but much of the surrounding habitat has been turned into cattle pasture and coffee and maize fields (Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2023). No national Mexican assessment has been published.

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, which is in Appendix I, Zamia magnifica 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+ has no page of its own for this recent species, which is covered by the listing of “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. For a species this recent and this localised, any plant offered for sale should come with documents proving cultivated origin.

Growing Zamia magnifica

No growing advice has been published and no cultivation experience is documented. The only living collection known to hold the species is that of Montgomery Botanical Center, in Florida, whose online catalogue lists three accessions registered in 2023. One can only start from its habitat: a free-draining rock face in hot, lowland rainforest. A very free-draining compost, a raised position or a hanging container that lets the leaves fall, warmth and humidity are the most consistent approach, but this is a deduction from the habitat, not the result of published trials.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Only a hot, humid, frost-free climate approaches that of its habitat, at 80 to 100 m in southern Mexico. Planting in a crevice of a rock bank or a steep, very free-draining slope would imitate its cliffs; no garden is known to grow it in the open outside Florida, where the conditions of the Montgomery plants are not stated.

Container cultivation

Elsewhere it is a plant for a heated glasshouse. A tall pot or a hanging basket, a mineral, very free-draining compost and enough space for leaves that can exceed 2.5 m are the main practical requirements that follow from its habit.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: one American collection holds it.

  • United States: Montgomery Botanical Center, Coral Gables, Florida, three accessions registered in 2023 according to its online catalogue (queried on 25 October 2026); not recorded in BGCI.
  • United Kingdom: no record in BGCI or in the online catalogues of British gardens.
  • Australia: no record in BGCI.

Propagation

No data specific to the species have been published. Like all Zamia, it is dioecious: a male and a female plant are needed, and in cultivation hand pollination. The original description shows a seedling whose first leaf bears two leaflets. The seeds should be cleaned of their flesh with gloves (see Toxicity and precautions) and sown fresh; germination is slow in cycads.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species is documented. In cultivation, Zamia are mostly at risk from stem rot in cold, waterlogged compost and from scale insects. Among the latter, Aulacaspis yasumatsui, the Asian cycad scale, counts the genus Zamia among its host plants according to the EPPO database, after Marler, Lindström and Watson (2021); no attack has been reported on Zamia magnifica itself.

Cold hardiness

There are no data on the cold tolerance of Zamia magnifica. It lives at 80 to 100 m in southern Mexico, in rainforest, and has not been grown long enough anywhere for observations to be published.

Mediterranean and European experience

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

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record exists. The Montgomery accessions are in southern Florida, but their growing conditions and any cold exposure have not been published.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia magnifica 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, a compound toxic to the liver and nervous system, and the ASPCA cites cycasin and BMAA, a neurotoxic amino acid, for Zamia furfuracea, with vomiting, bloody diarrhoea and liver damage in dogs, cats and horses; the seeds are the most dangerous part. The people of La Chinantla themselves use the seeds as a poison (see Traditional uses), which confirms their toxicity. 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

According to the original description, local people use the seeds of Zamia magnifica as an insecticide: they crush them, add sugar or honey and leave the mixture in an open container; flies that feed on it die, poisoned by the toxic compounds. No other use is documented.

Frequently asked questions

Is it a palm?

No. Despite its appearance, Zamia magnifica is a cycad (Zamiaceae), a gymnosperm that reproduces by cones, with no close relationship to palms.

Where does it grow?

Only in the La Chinantla region, in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico, on cliffs in rainforest between 80 and 100 m.

Why the name?

From the Latin magnificus, “magnificent”, for its large, spectacular hanging leaves.

What makes it unusual?

It grows on rock, with pendent leaves that can exceed 2.5 m, the largest of any Mexican Zamia; its young leaves emerge pink and woolly, then turn caramel.

How long has it been known?

It was described on 8 May 2023; the type was collected on 3 August 2022, and no herbarium specimen existed before.

Is it endangered?

Very probably. The IUCN has not yet assessed it, but its authors propose Critically Endangered: a single population of about 2,000 plants, in a landscape being turned into pasture and crops.

Is it poisonous?

Yes. Local people even use its crushed seeds to poison flies. Treat it as toxic to people and animals, especially the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Pérez-Farrera, M.A., Gutiérrez-Ortega, J.S., Martínez-Martínez, M.G. & Calonje, M. (2023). Zamia magnifica (Zamiaceae, Cycadales): a new rupicolous cycad species from Sierra Norte, Oaxaca, Mexico. Taxonomy 3(2): 232–249. https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy3020017 [Original description; full text read.]
  • Nicolalde-Morejón, F., Martínez-Domínguez, L., González-Aguilar, M.A. & Stevenson, D.W. (2024). Reestablishment of Zamia lawsoniana (Zamiaceae, Cycadales), an endemic species of Mexico, with first description of the ovulate strobilus. Acta Botanica Mexicana 131: e2262. https://doi.org/10.21829/abm131.2024.2262 [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; Zamia magnifica not sampled.]
  • Calonje, M., Meerow, A.W., Griffith, M.P., Salas-Leiva, D., Vovides, A.P., Coiro, M. & Francisco-Ortega, J. (2019). A time-calibrated species tree phylogeny of the New World cycad genus Zamia L. (Zamiaceae, Cycadales). International Journal of Plant Sciences 180(4): 286–314. [Not consulted; framework of the Mesoamerican clades cited after the 2023 description.]
  • Marler, T.E., Lindström, A.J. & Watson, G.W. (2021). Aulacaspis yasumatsui delivers a blow to international cycad horticulture. Horticulturae 7(6): 147. https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7060147 [Review of the scale insect; host plants cited after EPPO; abstract read.]
  • 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.]