Zamia restrepoi

Zamia restrepoi, long known as Chigua restrepoi, is a cycad of Colombia that grows only in the department of Córdoba, at the foot of the Western Cordillera, in the humid lowland forests of the Sinú basin. It is the only member of the genus Zamia whose leaflets have a true midrib, the feature that led to its placement in 1990 in a genus of its own, Chigua, merged into Zamia in 2009. Rated Critically Endangered by the IUCN, it is also the only species of the genus listed in CITES Appendix I, since 18 January 1990, under the name Chigua restrepoi.

Key facts about Zamia restrepoi

  • Accepted name: Zamia restrepoi (D.W.Stev.) A.Lindstr. (2009), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) and by GBIF; POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: Chigua restrepoi D.W.Stev. (1990), the original name; Chigua bernalii D.W.Stev. (1990), a synonym
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no English name; “corocito” (Spanish, local use in Colombia); “chigua” (Spanish, name given by Species+)
  • Natural range: Colombia, department of Córdoba (municipality of Tierralta), at about 100 to 200 m
  • IUCN status: Critically Endangered (CR), assessment published in 2022
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix I since 18 January 1990 (listed as Chigua restrepoi), with no exemption for seeds; Annex A in the European Union
  • Documented hardiness: no data (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, the understorey of humid forest, under good canopy cover, on well-drained soil; no published growing advice
  • Habit and adult size: underground stem about 10 cm across; up to 5 leaves, no more than 3 m long
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Montgomery Botanical Center (two accessions, 2010 and 2021), The Huntington and the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley (BGCI); no British or Australian record
  • Toxicity: no data specific to the species; treat it as poisonous, like all cycads (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Zamia restrepoi

Zamia restrepoi can be recognised at a glance: its thin leaflets have a prominent midrib, which no other Zamia has. Its other characters are those of the small group of Colombian species to which it belongs: underground stem, prickly petiole, toothed leaflets and cones on long stalks. Description after the species sheet of the Colombian action plan for the conservation of zamias (López-Gallego, 2015):

  • Stem: underground, up to 10 cm across.
  • Leaves: in a rosette at the top of the stem, up to 5 at a time, no more than 3 m long; the petiole and lower part of the rachis carry many prickles. Young leaves are brown and densely downy.
  • Leaflets: up to 30 per leaf, lanceolate, stalkless, up to 35 cm long and 5 cm wide, papery in texture, with a main vein and marked teeth along the margin towards the tip.
  • Male cones: brown, downy, up to 5 cm, on a long stalk up to 10 cm.
  • Female cones: reddish brown, downy, up to 15 cm, on a stalk up to 30 cm.
  • Seeds: with a red fleshy coat, about 1 cm.

Anatomy confirms how unusual this midrib is: in all the Zamia studied, the vascular bundles of the leaflet are parallel and of similar size, except in Zamia restrepoi, where the midrib corresponds to a single large bundle (Glos and colleagues, 2022, after Stevenson and colleagues, 1996). In the key to its group published in 2021, the species stands apart on three criteria: prickly petiole, stalkless leaflets without a collar, and a clearly visible midrib (Calonje and colleagues, 2021).

Hybrids

No hybrid is known.

Possible confusion

Confusion with another Zamia is almost impossible because of the midrib. Among cycads, a midrib is found in Cycas, whose leaflets have no other visible veins, and in Stangeria of South Africa, whose midrib gives off side veins; neither grows in the Americas. In the same Sinú basin, about twenty kilometres from the old collections of Zamia restrepoi, grows Zamia sinuensis, described in 2021: its strongly wavy leaflets have no midrib, and the two species, which look nothing alike, do not seem to grow together (Calonje and colleagues, 2021). The name of Zamia chigua, a species of the Colombian Chocó described in 1854, can also mislead: it has nothing to do with the former genus Chigua.

Taxonomy

Zamia restrepoi is the accepted name according to The World List of Cycads, and GBIF gives it as accepted; POWO could not be consulted directly. The name results from the merging of the former genus Chigua into Zamia.

The genus Chigua, 1990 to 2009

In 1990 Dennis W. Stevenson, of the New York Botanical Garden, described in the Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden (volume 57, pages 169 to 172) a new genus of cycads, Chigua, with two species from the municipality of Tierralta, in Córdoba: Chigua restrepoi and Chigua bernalii. The ground for a separate genus was the venation of the leaflets, which have a midrib giving off branched side veins, whereas Zamia have only parallel veins. The generic name takes up “chigua”, an indigenous name for cycads in Colombia.

The merger into Zamia (Lindström, 2009)

In 2009 the botanist Anders J. Lindström published in the journal Taxon (volume 58, pages 265 to 270) a paper on the typification of several Zamia names, which also reassessed the status of Chigua. He placed the genus Chigua in the synonymy of Zamia, made the combination Zamia restrepoi (D.W.Stev.) A.Lindstr. and referred Chigua bernalii to the same species. His arguments were of three kinds (Lindstrom, 2009).

  • Morphology: of the five characters put forward in 1990 to define Chigua, three occur in many or all Zamia (subopposite to alternate leaflets, hexagonal and peltate male and female scales). The bumps at the corners of the female scales, presented as unique, appear in Zamia urep, Zamia melanorrhachis and Zamia disodon when the cone has not been pollinated: for Lindström, they are an artefact of non-pollination or drying. That leaves the midrib, unparalleled in Zamia, and cones on very long stalks, since found in Zamia disodon and Zamia melanorrhachis, which also have similar prominent side veins.
  • Genetics: the molecular studies published until then all pointed the same way. According to the work Lindström cites, chloroplast DNA separates Chigua from Zamia less than Ceratozamia from Microcycas, two phylogenies of 2003 and 2005 placed Chigua inside Zamia, and the DNA barcodes tested in 2007 distinguished all cycad genera except Chigua and Zamia.
  • A single species: Chigua restrepoi was known from only two specimens and Chigua bernalii from one, sterile, collected a few kilometres apart; two such closely related species growing almost side by side would be unparalleled in cycads. In early 2008 Lindström visited the type locality, by then flooded by the dam, and found only scattered plants in the degraded forest nearby; he measured the many plants rescued and replanted higher up, in a reforested area. Leaflet width and number varied so much among them that they could not separate two species: the broad, few leaflets of the restrepoi type (3 to 5 cm wide, 20 to 30 per leaf) and the narrow, numerous leaflets of the bernalii type (1 to 1.5 cm wide, 30 to 55 per leaf) fall within the variation of a single species, as seen in other Zamia between plants in sun and in shade. He kept the name attached to the fertile specimen, restrepoi.

Lindström also notes that the plate published in 1990 seems to show young female cones, not male cones as the caption says, and recalls the chromosome number of the species, 2n = 18, shared with Zamia manicata and Zamia amplifolia (Lindstrom, 2009).

Molecular studies published since confirm that the species is a true Zamia: it belongs to the “manicata clade”, a group of species of northern Colombia and eastern Panama whose relationship is well supported (Calonje and colleagues, 2019, cited by Calonje and colleagues, 2021). The group comprises Zamia manicata, Zamia disodon, Zamia melanorrhachis, Zamia restrepoi and, since 2021, Zamia imbricata and Zamia sinuensis. Its members have extraordinarily diverse leaflets, but share an underground or half-buried stem, strongly toothed leaflets, cones on long stalks, small seeds with a very thin coat and tiny male cones (Calonje and colleagues, 2021). The transcriptome-based study by Lindstrom and colleagues (2024), which sampled a plant from Córdoba, confirms the position of Zamia restrepoi within this northern Colombian subgroup, with Zamia disodon, Zamia manicata and Zamia sinuensis, and concludes that the leaflet midrib is a feature unique to this species within Zamia, not the mark of a separate lineage.

CITES followed this change later: according to Species+, Chigua was merged into Zamia, and Chigua bernalii into Chigua restrepoi, in 2017, following the nomenclatural changes adopted at the 17th Conference of the Parties. In practice, Chigua restrepoi, Chigua bernalii and Zamia restrepoi all refer to the same plant, and there is no accepted Zamia bernalii.

Etymology and history

The epithet restrepoi honours Father Sergio Restrepo (1939–1989), a Colombian botanist who discovered the species, accompanied and guided Knut Norstog and Dennis Stevenson in their fieldwork, and was later murdered (Stevenson, 1990, after Haynes, 2022, followed by The World List of Cycads). The origin of the epithet bernalii is not documented; the type of Chigua bernalii was collected by R. Bernal and colleagues.

Herbaria keep traces of a history older than the description. The earliest known collection was made on 5 and 6 March 1918 at Tierralta, between 90 and 120 m, by the American botanist Francis W. Pennell (no. 4608). The species was not collected again until 1986: on 24 and 27 July by R. Bernal and colleagues (the second specimen, no. 1189, collected at 150 m in disturbed forest, became the type of Chigua bernalii, kept in the National Herbarium of Colombia, with isotypes at K, US and FTG), then in September by I. Turner. The type of Chigua restrepoi was collected on 14 March 1987 at Tierralta, at 100 m, by Dennis Stevenson and colleagues (no. 693) and is kept in the herbarium of the University of Antioquia (HUA), with isotypes at FTG and NY (Lindstrom, 2009). Further collections date from 1999, 2015 and October 2017 (Calonje and colleagues, 2021, appendix).

Common names

No English name is attested. In Colombia, the national action plan for the conservation of zamias records the name “corocito”, used by people living where the species grows (López-Gallego, 2015). Species+ gives “chigua” as the Spanish name; this is in fact the indigenous name for cycads in general in Colombia, the origin of the generic name Chigua and of the epithet of Zamia chigua, which makes it ambiguous.

In the wild

Zamia restrepoi is endemic to Colombia. It grows in the north-west of the country, on the foothills of the Serranía de San Jerónimo, at the foot of the Western Cordillera, where the Andes descend towards the Caribbean plain, only in the department of Córdoba (municipality of Tierralta). The known populations lie between 100 and 200 m; herbarium specimens were collected between about 84 and 150 m (López-Gallego, 2015; Calonje and colleagues, 2021).

It is a plant of the understorey of humid tropical foothill forest, on well-drained soils under good canopy cover. Like all cycads, it hosts in its roots cyanobacteria (Nostoc) that fix nitrogen from the air. Its biology remains very poorly known: how often it produces cones is unknown, its pollinators have not been identified (beetles of the genus Pharaxonotha, which pollinate other Colombian Zamia, have not been recorded on it), and the seeds seem to fall mainly at the foot of the plant, with no known animal disperser. Caterpillars of butterflies of the genus Eumaeus, which devour the foliage of many Zamia, have not been observed on it (López-Gallego, 2015).

No climatic record specific to the species has been published. For Zamia sinuensis, which grows in the same basin about twenty kilometres away, the authors give a tropical monsoon climate: a mean annual temperature of 25.4 °C (77.7 °F), 2,200 to 2,900 mm of rain a year, and a dry season from December to March (Calonje and colleagues, 2021).

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia restrepoi is rated Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List under criteria A2ac+4ac, B1ab(iii,v)+2ab(iii,v) and C2a(ii) (assessment by C. López-Gallego published in 2022, according to The World List of Cycads; category confirmed by GBIF; the Red List page could not be consulted). In Colombia it is rated Critically Endangered in the national red lists of 2005 (then under both names, Chigua restrepoi and Chigua bernalii) and 2015.

The Colombian action plan of 2015 describes a very serious situation (López-Gallego, 2015):

  • the building of the Urrá dam destroyed the type locality, long the only one known: the population of the middle Quimarí is considered extinct by flooding; a few plants were rescued and replanted in a nearby arboretum, that of the Biozoo foundation, as part of the environmental compensation for the dam;
  • the only population known afterwards, at Alto del Jui (Tierralta), has fewer than 50 adults, spread over two very small forest fragments (under 100 ha), surrounded by pasture and crops;
  • the studies carried out by the University of Antioquia from 2013 to 2015 found no seeds, seedlings or young plants there: the population is not regenerating;
  • the remaining fragments are being degraded by selective logging, hunting and other activities; no collection for trade has been reported;
  • the species has been reported in the Paramillo National Natural Park, without it being known whether a viable population exists there.

Measures are under way: plants in the collection of the Medellín Botanic Garden, a programme to rescue threatened plants from degraded habitats, replanting in safer sites and propagation on site, coordinated by the EECO research group of the University of Antioquia (López-Gallego, 2015). A rescue, propagation and reintroduction programme had already been presented in 2007 in The Cycad Newsletter (López-Gallego and López-Alvarez, 2007, according to The World List of Cycads). The authors of the 2021 paper visited the Tierralta population again.

Zamia restrepoi is the only species of the genus listed in CITES Appendix I, since 18 January 1990, under the name Chigua restrepoi. This status is stricter than that of other Zamia: annotation #4, which exempts the seeds of Appendix II species, does not apply, so seeds are covered as well as plants. International trade in wild-collected specimens for commercial purposes is in principle prohibited, and any movement requires export and import permits. In the European Union the species is listed in Annex A of Regulation (EC) No 338/97 (annexes set by Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026), which also strictly controls its commercial use within the Union. These statuses were checked on Species+ on 3 October 2026. The Colombian action plan of 2015 wrongly gives Appendix II: Species+ is authoritative.

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 restrepoi

Zamia restrepoi is almost absent from collections, and no growing advice has been published. On the French forum Fous de palmiers, a French-speaking grower who had visited a Colombian nursery in 2012 reported seeing “Chigua restrepoi” there; the same contributor described it in 2016 as virtually absent from cultivation.

Simon Lavaud, of the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu, puts it in his group of Zamia from Central America and the lowland forests of South America, rated “difficult” outside the tropics, and illustrates it with the caption that the lowland Zamia of Colombia are reputed to be difficult to grow. For this group he advises a free-draining, neutral to acid compost and water, about 22 °C (72 °F) at night with short spells around 15 °C (59 °F) tolerated, 28 to 30 °C (82 to 86 °F) by day and air humidity of 70 to 90 % (Lavaud, 2023). These are recommendations for a group, not trials with Zamia restrepoi.

Its habitat gives a few pointers: warmth all year, abundant rain with a dry season, a shaded understorey and well-drained soil. Its thin leaflets may, according to a hypothesis of Stevenson and his colleagues, be an adaptation to the low light of dense understorey (cited by Glos and colleagues, 2022).

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

In Colombia, rescued plants were replanted in the Biozoo arboretum, near the flooded site, and the species is held at the Medellín Botanic Garden; no planting outside Colombia has been documented. Elsewhere, only a frost-free, warm and humid tropical climate could suit it; this is a deduction from its habitat, not a tested result.

Container cultivation

No container-growing report has been published. A warm, humid glasshouse, a very free-draining compost and filtered light would be the most consistent approach; it has not been validated by published trials.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: present in three American collections, absent from British and Australian records.

  • United States: the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists two accession numbers, 20100026 and 20210146, from 2010 and 2021 according to their numbering; BGCI also records it at The Huntington (San Marino, California) and the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley (catalogue and BGCI queried on 25 October 2026).
  • Australia: no record in BGCI.
  • United Kingdom: no record in BGCI or in the online catalogues of British gardens.

A BGCI declaration shows that a garden held the plant at some point, not that it is alive there today. Outside these three countries, BGCI also records it at the Medellín Botanic Garden (Colombia). Given its Appendix I listing, any movement of plants or seeds between these collections requires CITES permits.

Propagation

No data on germination or seedling growth have been published. Like all Zamia, the species has male and female plants and is propagated from seed. The Colombian action plan mentions propagation work aimed at reinforcing populations, without giving results (López-Gallego, 2015). The Appendix I listing covers seeds: their international trade is subject to the same permits as that of plants.

Pests and diseases

No disease or pest specific to the species has been documented. In the wild, no damage by Eumaeus caterpillars has been reported (López-Gallego, 2015). In cultivation, Zamia are mainly at risk from rot in cold, sodden compost, and from scale insects.

Cold hardiness

There are no data on the cold tolerance of Zamia restrepoi. It lives at low altitude, in a tropical climate without a cold season; nothing suggests that it tolerates frost.

Mediterranean and European experience

No cultivation result has been published in France or Italy, in the ground or in pots, and no dated frost episode concerns the species. At the Jardin zoologique tropical in La Londe-les-Maures (Var, on the French Riviera), no observation of this species has been published. For readers in Mediterranean-type climates such as California or southern Australia, only a heated glasshouse is conceivable.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record has been published, on forums or by botanic gardens. Trebrown, a British nursery, gives it USDA zone 10a, a commercial rating, not a measured result. In the UK it would need a hot, humid glasshouse all year round.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia restrepoi has been published. The risk is, however, well documented in cycads: Zamia contain toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived, harmful to the liver and nervous system, and cycads also contain a neurotoxic amino acid, BMAA. Within the genus, the ASPCA lists Zamia furfuracea as toxic to dogs, cats and horses. 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

The Colombian action plan reports a local use: some farmers of the region, apparently influenced by indigenous communities, use the rhizome (the underground stem) medicinally to help heal skin wounds, including snakebites (López-Gallego, 2015). This use has never been studied and must not be copied, given the toxicity of cycads.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Chigua restrepoi and Zamia restrepoi?

None: they are the same plant. Described in 1990 in the genus Chigua, it was moved to Zamia by Anders Lindström in 2009; CITES adopted the change in 2017. Chigua bernalii is also a synonym.

Why was a separate genus created?

Because of its leaflets. They have a midrib giving off side veins, whereas other Zamia have only parallel veins. Molecular studies nevertheless place the species among the Colombian Zamia of the manicata clade.

Is it the most protected Zamia?

Yes. It is the only species of the genus in CITES Appendix I, since 1990, and in Annex A in the European Union. Unlike other Zamia, even its seeds are covered.

How many plants are left in the wild?

Very few. In 2015 the only known population had fewer than 50 adults in two small forest fragments, with no seedlings or young plants. The type locality was destroyed by the Urrá dam.

Can I buy one?

Practically not. The species is almost absent from collections, and CITES Appendix I in principle prohibits international trade in wild-collected plants. Any plant offered must come with CITES and, in Europe, EU documents.

Is it hardy?

No, in all likelihood. There are no cold data, and it lives at low altitude in a tropical climate; it needs a heated glasshouse.

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

  • 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 [Synonymy of Chigua and the combination Zamia restrepoi; full text read: morphological and molecular arguments, measurements of rescued plants, types, chromosome number.]
  • Stevenson, D.W. (1990). Chigua, a new genus in the Zamiaceae, with comments on its biogeographic significance. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 57: 169–172. [Description of Chigua restrepoi and Chigua bernalii; reference taken from The World List of Cycads and Calonje et al. (2021); not consulted.]
  • Calonje, M., Castro Hernández, J., Coca, L.F., Jaramillo, D. & Aristizábal, A. (2021). Two new species of Zamia (Zamiaceae, Cycadales) from the Magdalena-Urabá moist forests ecoregion of northern Colombia. Phytotaxa 497(1): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.497.1.1 [Full text consulted.]
  • López-Gallego, C. (2015). Plan de acción para la conservación de las zamias de Colombia. Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible and Universidad de Antioquia, Bogotá. [Official document; read in full.]
  • López-Gallego, C. (2022). Zamia restrepoi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T185752A69844329. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T185752A69844329.en [IUCN assessment; reference checked on Crossref, category confirmed by GBIF; the Red List page could not be consulted.]
  • López-Gallego, C. & López-Alvarez, N. (2007). A rescue, propagation and reintroduction program for one of the most endangered cycad genera: Chigua in northwestern Colombia. The Cycad Newsletter 30(4): 34–35. [Reference given by The World List of Cycads; not consulted.]
  • Glos, R.A.E., Salzman, S., Calonje, M., Vovides, A.P., Coiro, M., Gandolfo, M.A. & Specht, C.D. (2022). Leaflet anatomical diversity in Zamia (Cycadales: Zamiaceae) shows little correlation with phylogeny and climate. The Botanical Review 88: 437–452. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12229-021-09272-0 [Anatomy of the midrib; full text consulted.]
  • 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 consulted on PubMed Central.]
  • 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. https://doi.org/10.1086/702642 [Phylogeny of the genus; not consulted directly, cited by the papers read.]
  • 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 [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.]