Zamia poeppigiana

Zamia poeppigiana is a large cycad with an aerial trunk from western Amazonia, known mainly from Peru, on the eastern slope of the Andes and in the Amazonian lowlands, and from the Brazilian state of Acre. This species of the genus Zamia carries, on a trunk up to 3 m tall, a crown of leaves up to 3 m long, armed with prickles and set with narrow, often sickle-shaped, toothed leaflets. Described in 1863 in the Flora Brasiliensis from a collection by the explorer Eduard Friedrich Poeppig, it gave its name to the “Zamia poeppigiana species complex”, together with Zamia lindenii and Zamia tolimensis, with which it was long confused. The IUCN rates it Least Concern.

Key facts about Zamia poeppigiana

  • Accepted name: Zamia poeppigiana Mart. & Eichler (1863), 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: Zamia baraquiniana Mast. (1868); Palmifolium poeppigianum (Mart. & Eichler) Kuntze (1891); Zamia wielandii J.Schust. (1932), an illegitimate name; Poeppig’s manuscript name: Zamia parasitica
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no English name; “macha piña” in Peru and “catuabao” in Brazil (Calonje and colleagues, 2011)
  • Natural range: Peru (Amazonas, Huánuco, Loreto, Pasco, San Martín, Ucayali), Brazil (Acre); The World List of Cycads adds Ecuador (Morona-Santiago); 155 to 1,300 m
  • IUCN status: Least Concern (LC), assessment published in 2022
  • 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: forests of the eastern Andean slope and the Amazonian lowlands; the type was collected on fallen tree trunks in lightly shaded rocky places beside the río Tocache; in cultivation, constant warmth and very humid air according to a French specialist nursery
  • Habit and adult size: aerial trunk up to 3 m tall and 10 to 30 cm across, erect or reclining; up to 35 leaves up to 3 m long; up to 49 pairs of leaflets 32 to 45 cm by 2.5 to 3.8 cm (Calonje and colleagues, 2011)
  • In the UK, US and Australia: declared to BGCI by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Naples Botanical Garden (Florida), the University of Hawaii at Hilo and the USDA germplasm system; rare in collections and often confused with Zamia lindenii
  • Toxicity: no data specific to the species; treat it as poisonous (see Toxicity and precautions)
Zamia poeppigiana
A plant grown as Zamia poeppigiana under glass (Væksthusene, Aarhus, Denmark).

How to recognise Zamia poeppigiana

It is a large Zamia with an aerial trunk, long leaves armed with prickles and narrow leaflets, often sickle-shaped and toothed for much of their length. Among the Zamia of Amazonia it is by far the most massive. The reference description is the one revised by Calonje and colleagues (2011) when they described Zamia tolimensis:

  • Trunk: aerial, globose to cylindrical, up to 3 m tall and 10 to 30 cm across, erect or reclining, usually single but sometimes branched; cataphylls papery, narrowly triangular, with grey-beige down, up to 13 cm by 3 cm.
  • Leaves: up to 35 per trunk, erect to arching, up to 3 m long; petiole up to 90 cm and rachis up to 210 cm, hairless, moderately to heavily armed with prickles up to 4 mm long along the whole petiole and up to the upper half of the rachis or beyond.
  • Leaflets: nearly opposite to nearly alternate, up to 49 pairs, narrowly lanceolate, with a clear longitudinal groove, usually sickle-shaped but sometimes straight; 20 to 42 teeth on the upper half to three quarters; light green and hairless when emerging, dark green when mature; median leaflets 32 to 45 cm by 2.5 to 3.8 cm.
  • Male cones: one to several per trunk, up to 27 cm by 2.5 to 4 cm, on a peduncle up to 15 cm; 24 to 36 pollen sacs per scale, in two separate groups along the margins.
  • Female cones: one to several per crown, nodding when ripe, with reddish-brown then dark brown down, 35 to 50 cm by 10 to 12 cm, on a peduncle up to 15 cm that rises above the cataphylls; axis densely downy.
  • Seeds: red when ripe, pyramidal-ovoid to oblong, often slightly flattened, 3 to 4 cm by 1.1 to 1.6 cm; hard shell (sclerotesta) 2.5 to 3.2 cm by 1 to 1.5 cm.

The original Latin description of 1863 paints a somewhat different picture: a reclining trunk about a fathom long (nearly 2 m), creeping over dead tree trunks, to which it clings by its roots, and rising only at the tip; leaves with 12 to 14 pairs of leaflets; an “unarmed” petiole; sickle-shaped leaflets of 6 to 14 inches by 10 to 18 lines (roughly 16 to 38 cm by 2 to 4 cm), glossy, with 30 to 40 veins, toothed mainly towards the tip and on the lower margin; male cones about 10 inches long on a peduncle of two and a half inches; red, dry seeds. Martius and Eichler had seen only a leaf and stamens in the Vienna herbarium, with a drawing and notes by Poeppig. The spineless petiole of the original description contradicts the modern descriptions, and no publication explains the discrepancy.

Hybrids

No hybrid, natural or raised in cultivation, has been documented.

Possible confusion

The most frequent confusion, in the wild and in the trade, involves the two other large tree-like species of the complex. Calonje and colleagues (2011) separate them as follows:

  • Zamia tolimensis, of the Central Cordillera of Colombia (Tolima): leaflets entire or with fewer than 16 teeth restricted to the upper half; petiole sparsely armed (30 prickles at most, usually fewer than 15); 40 or more pollen sacs per scale, in a single group; beige to yellowish-beige female cones, erect, on a short peduncle (7 to 9 cm); seed shell more than 2.1 cm wide;
  • Zamia lindenii, of the western slope of the Andes and the Pacific lowlands of Ecuador and the far north of Peru: leaflets usually broadly lanceolate, more than 3.8 cm wide; petiole of young leaves densely downy; female cones pendent when ripe;
  • Zamia poeppigiana, of the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru: leaflets usually narrowly lanceolate, less than 3.8 cm wide; petiole of young leaves hairless; female cones nodding when ripe; stalks of the female cone scales hairless.

The last two share the characters that set them apart from Zamia tolimensis: median leaflets with 18 or more teeth starting in the lower half; petiole with 35 or more prickles; fewer than 38 pollen sacs per scale, in two groups; dark brown to grey female cones with a downy axis and a long peduncle (more than 12 cm); seed shell less than 1.8 cm wide. According to the same authors, leaflet shape varies a great deal, even on a single leaf, and seed shape does not separate Zamia poeppigiana from Zamia lindenii.

In Amazonia three other Zamia form an aerial trunk: Zamia multidentata (Acre, described in 2023), Zamia hymenophyllidia and Zamia urarinorum (Loreto, described in 2026). According to Calonje and colleagues (2026), their stems stay slender and short, never exceeding 10 cm in diameter or 1 m in height, whereas that of Zamia poeppigiana reaches 25 cm and 3 m. In 1863 Martius and Eichler were already comparing its large leaflets with those of Zamia skinneri and the large forms of Zamia muricata.

Plants and seeds sold as Zamia poeppigiana deserve checking: according to Calonje and colleagues (2011) the species is very rare in botanic gardens, whereas Zamia lindenii is relatively common there, and a French grower reported on the Fous de palmiers forum in December 2014 that seeds sold under this name by a large online seed dealer were in fact Zamia lindenii.

Taxonomy

Zamia poeppigiana Mart. & Eichler 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, which cites “Fl. Bras. 4(1): 414 (1863)”); POWO itself could not be consulted. The species was published in 1863 by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius and August Wilhelm Eichler in the Flora Brasiliensis (volume 4, part 1, pages 414 to 416, plate 109). Poeppig had called it Zamia parasitica in his manuscripts; the authors set that name aside because the plant is not really a parasite and a Zamia pseudoparasitica already existed, and dedicated the species to its discoverer.

The type is an unnumbered collection by Poeppig, made in 1830 beside the río Tocache, in the Maynas Alto, Peru. Calonje and colleagues (2011) cite a lectotype kept in Chicago (F, from Vienna), designated by Stevenson and Sabato in 1986, with an isotype at Harvard (GH); The World List of Cycads presents the Chicago specimen as the holotype.

Two synonyms are recognised. Zamia baraquiniana, published in 1868 in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, has as neotype, chosen by Stevenson and Sabato (1986), a plant from the botanic garden of St Petersburg (LE, isoneotype at Kew); Zamia wielandii, coined by Schuster in 1932, is an illegitimate name, superfluous for Zamia baraquiniana. Palmifolium poeppigianum is the combination made by Otto Kuntze in 1891 in a genus now abandoned. The World Checklist of Vascular Plants attributes Zamia baraquiniana to T.Moore & Mast., where The World List of Cycads gives Mast. alone, and lists Poeppig’s name, as Zamia parasitica Poepp. ex Eichler, among the synonyms.

The status of Zamia lindenii was long debated. According to Calonje and colleagues (2011), Sabato (1990), Stevenson (2001) and Nicolalde-Morejón (2007) merged the two species, whereas Whitelock (2002) and Lindstrom (2009) kept them apart; Lindstrom (2009) formally separated them, and the 2011 article, which provides revised descriptions and a key, concludes that they are two species separated by the Andes. The same article shows that neither grows in Colombia: the Tolima collections referred to Zamia poeppigiana by Stevenson (2001) belong to Zamia tolimensis, and the Barbacoas (Nariño) plants reported by Schuster in 1932 to Zamia roezlii.

Long regarded as the only tree-like Zamia of Amazonia (Stevenson 2001, 2004), it now shares that habit with three other species among the eleven known from the Amazon basin (Calonje and colleagues, 2026).

Etymology and history

The epithet honours Eduard Friedrich Poeppig (1798–1868), a German botanist, zoologist and explorer from Leipzig, who first collected the species during an expedition to Brazil and Peru (The World List of Cycads, after Haynes, 2022).

The original description tells how part of Poeppig’s work was lost: his careful analysis of the female cone, drawn on the spot, disappeared, and the full description made from the living plant was destroyed when his papers were soaked in a shipwreck on the río Huallaga. Martius and Eichler therefore described the species from a leaf and stamens kept in the Vienna herbarium, a drawing from life and a few notes that Poeppig had passed on to them. They noted that the species “will perhaps be discovered in the neighbouring lands of Brazil”; it has since been collected there, in Acre.

Common names

No English name is attested. Calonje and colleagues (2011) give two local names: “macha piña” in Peru and “catuabao” in Brazil; Species+ repeats the second. The meaning of these names is not documented.

In the wild

Zamia poeppigiana grows on the eastern slope of the Andes and in the Amazonian lowlands of Peru and Brazil, between 155 and 1,300 m; the northernmost collection known in 2011 lay at 4° 54′ south (Calonje and colleagues, 2011, who cite collections from the Peruvian departments of Amazonas, Huánuco, Loreto, Pasco, San Martín and Ucayali, and from Tarauacá in Acre). The World List of Cycads adds the province of Morona-Santiago, in Ecuador, which is absent from the 2011 article, without citing a supporting collection.

The type collection was made on fallen tree trunks in lightly shaded rocky places beside the río Tocache, among bromeliads (Aechmea, Guzmania), orchids (Sobralia) and thickets of Geonoma and Lepidocaryum palms, in flower and fruit in July. Population sizes and pollinators are not documented; the 2011 article reports caterpillars of Eumaeus butterflies on Zamia tolimensis, not on this species.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia poeppigiana is rated Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, in the assessment by C. López-Gallego published in 2022 (The World List of Cycads; category confirmed by GBIF); an earlier assessment, by D.W. Stevenson, was published in 2010. The details of any threats are given on the Red List page, which could not be consulted.

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, which is in Appendix I, Zamia poeppigiana is covered by the listing of the genus in CITES Appendix II, in force since 4 February 1977. Annotation #4 exempts seeds, pollen, seedlings and tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers; international trade in the plants themselves requires an export permit from the country of origin. 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 its own entry for Zamia poeppigiana, with Zamia baraquiniana as a synonym, which confirms this status (checked on 11 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 poeppigiana

No growing guidelines specific to Zamia poeppigiana have been published, and because of the confusion with Zamia lindenii, a plant sold or displayed under this name should be checked before its behaviour is attributed to the species.

Simon Lavaud, of the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu, places Zamia poeppigiana in his group of Zamia from the lowland forests of Central and South America, which he considers difficult outside the tropics. For this group he recommends:

  • a free-draining, neutral to acidic compost, and neutral to acidic water;
  • nights of about 22 °C (71.6 °F), with brief drops to about 15 °C (59 °F) tolerated;
  • days of 28 to 30 °C (82.4 to 86 °F), up to 34 to 35 °C (93.2 to 95 °F) for most species, with possible damage to new leaves during heat peaks;
  • high air humidity, 70 to 90%, for optimal growth.

In his view European climates are too cool and too dry for these species even in summer, and a glasshouse, a conservatory or a bright, heated room are the solutions; keeping the compost dry in winter protects the species of the humid tropics against rot less well than those from climates with a dry season (Lavaud, 2023). These are recommendations from experience for a group of species, not measurements on Zamia poeppigiana; with leaves up to 3 m long, the plant also needs a great deal of room.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Outdoors it is only conceivable in a constantly warm, humid tropical climate, in light shade and free-draining soil. No outdoor planting has been documented outside its range.

Container cultivation

Young plants can be grown in a pot in a warm, humid glasshouse; an adult plant, with its trunk up to 3 m and leaves of 3 m, quickly outgrows a pot and needs a large tropical house.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: declared by a few major gardens in the three countries, but rare and liable to confusion with Zamia lindenii.

  • United Kingdom: the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, declare it to BGCI.
  • United States: Naples Botanical Garden (Florida), the University of Hawaii at Hilo and the USDA National Plant Germplasm System declare it to BGCI; Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists no accession in its online catalogue (queried on 25 October 2026), and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden does not list it in its online catalogue.
  • Australia: the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney lists it in its online catalogue and declares it to BGCI.

A BGCI declaration shows that a garden held the plant at some point, not that it is alive there today. Elsewhere, BGCI lists a garden in Lima (Peru) and one in Shenzhen (China). In Denmark, a plant labelled with this name grows in the Aarhus glasshouses (photograph above).

Propagation

No data specific to the species exist. Like all Zamia, it has male and female plants and is propagated from fresh seed after pollination, usually by hand in cultivation. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4, but they should come from legally sourced cultivated plants and, given the trade confusion with Zamia lindenii, be correctly identified.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species has been documented. For the group of species from the humid tropics, Lavaud (2023) stresses above all the risk of root rot when the plant is too cold; scale insects are, as in all cycads, the most common pest in cultivation.

Cold hardiness

There are no data on the cold tolerance of Zamia poeppigiana, either in the wild or in cultivation. The Cycadales.eu recommendations for lowland species (nights around 22 °C, brief drops to about 15 °C) describe conditions for healthy growth, not a survival limit.

Mediterranean and European experience

No in-ground planting has been reported in France, 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, humid glasshouse.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record has been published. Trebrown, a British nursery, gives it USDA zone 9b, a commercial rating that no measured result supports and that sits poorly with a plant of constantly warm lowland forest. The gardens that declare it in Kew, Sydney, southern Florida and Hawaii do not say whether their plants are under glass or outdoors. In the UK it needs a heated tropical glasshouse.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia poeppigiana 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, with vomiting, bloody diarrhoea and liver damage; 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 specific to Zamia poeppigiana is documented. As early as 1863, Martius and Eichler wrote that nothing was known of the uses of the South American Zamia, unlike the starch extracted from those of the West Indies.

Frequently asked questions

Where does Zamia poeppigiana grow?

On the eastern slope of the Andes and in the Amazonian lowlands of Peru, and in Brazilian Acre, between 155 and 1,300 m. The World List of Cycads also lists it for Ecuador (Morona-Santiago).

Is it the same plant as Zamia lindenii?

No. The two were long merged, but Zamia lindenii grows on the other side of the Andes, in Ecuador and the far north of Peru, and has broader leaflets, downy young leaves and pendent female cones. Seeds sold as Zamia poeppigiana have turned out to be Zamia lindenii.

Is it the only tree-like Zamia?

No. Other Zamia have an aerial trunk, such as Zamia lindenii and Zamia tolimensis. In Amazonia it is the most massive of the four Zamia with a trunk, at up to 3 m tall and 25 cm across.

How big does it get?

A trunk up to 3 m tall, a crown of about thirty leaves up to 3 m long, and female cones 35 to 50 cm long (Calonje and colleagues, 2011).

Who was Poeppig?

Eduard Friedrich Poeppig (1798–1868), a German explorer and naturalist from Leipzig. He collected the species in 1830 beside the río Tocache, in Peru, but part of his notes was lost in a shipwreck on the río Huallaga.

Is it endangered?

No, according to the IUCN, which rates it Least Concern (2022). Like all Zamia, it is nevertheless covered by CITES Appendix II.

Can it be grown in the UK or the US?

Only under glass in the UK; in the US, outdoors only in frost-free, humid tropical conditions such as southern Florida or Hawaii, where a few gardens declare it. A specialist nursery ranks it among the difficult Zamia of the humid tropics.

Is it poisonous?

It must be assumed so. No analysis concerns the species, but the cycads studied contain serious toxins, especially in the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Martius, C.F.P. von & Eichler, A.W. (1863). Cycadeae. In: Martius, C.F.P. von (ed.), Flora Brasiliensis 4(1): 414–416, pl. 109. [Original description; text read in the Internet Archive scan.]
  • Calonje, M., Esquivel, H.E., Stevenson, D.W., Calonje, C. & Pava, D. (2011). A new arborescent species of Zamia from the Central Cordillera of Tolima, Colombia (Cycadales, Zamiaceae), with comments on the Z. poeppigiana species complex. Brittonia 63(4): 442–451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12228-011-9190-4 [Revised description and key; full text read.]
  • Calonje, M., Zárate-Gómez, R., Jones, M.A., Segalla, R., Martín Brañas, M., Hidalgo Pizango, C.G. & Roca Alcázar, F. (2026). Zamia urarinorum (Cycadales, Zamiaceae), a new cycad species from wetland forests of Loreto, Peru. Phytotaxa 741(1): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.741.1.1 [Comparison of the tree-like Amazonian Zamia; read.]
  • Lindstrom, A.J. (2009). Typification of some species names in Zamia L. (Zamiaceae), with an assessment of the status of Chigua D.Stev. Taxon 58(1): 265–270. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.581025 [Formal separation of Zamia lindenii according to Calonje et al. (2011); not consulted.]
  • Stevenson, D.W. & Sabato, S. (1986). Typification of names in Zamia L. and Aulacophyllum Regel (Zamiaceae). Taxon 35(1): 134–144. https://doi.org/10.2307/1221051 [Lectotype and neotype according to Calonje et al. (2011); not consulted.]
  • López-Gallego, C. (2022). Zamia poeppigiana. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T213252644A69840595. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T213252644A69840595.en [Current assessment, LC; reference given by The World List of Cycads and checked on Crossref; the Red List page could not be consulted.]
  • Stevenson, D.W. (2010). Zamia poeppigiana. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T42173A10647414. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T42173A10647414.en [Earlier assessment; reference checked on Crossref, not consulted.]
  • Lavaud, S. (2023). Comment cultiver les Zamia en climat tempéré. Cycadales.eu. [Growing advice for groups of species; read directly.]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.550.1.1 [Compendium 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.]