Ceratozamia subroseophylla

Ceratozamia subroseophylla is a large cycad of south-eastern Mexico, described in 2016 from the mountainous Los Tuxtlas region of southern Veracruz, where it grows in tropical rainforest on volcanic soils between about 400 and 1,050 m (about 1,310 to 3,440 ft). This species of the genus Ceratozamia was known to growers as Ceratozamia robusta ‘Santiago Tuxtla’ before it was named. It owes its name to the pale pink base of the scales of its female cones. Its limits are disputed: the 2022 monograph of the genus, followed by the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP, the database behind POWO), includes Ceratozamia dominguezii in it, a species that The World List of Cycads still accepts, and the plants of Tabasco that the monograph added to it were described in 2024 as a separate species. It is listed as Endangered by the IUCN.

Key facts about Ceratozamia subroseophylla

  • Accepted name: Ceratozamia subroseophylla Mart.-Domínguez & Nic.-Mor. (2016), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), by the 2022 monograph of the genus and by the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP, the database behind POWO, read via GBIF)
  • Former names and synonyms: known in horticulture as Ceratozamia robusta ‘Santiago Tuxtla’; Ceratozamia dominguezii Pérez-Farr. & Gut.Ortega (2021) is treated as a synonym by the 2022 monograph and by the WCVP, but remains accepted by The World List of Cycads (see Taxonomy)
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: none in English; “hymniom pekmuk” in the Popoluca language (Veracruz)
  • Natural range: Mexico, Veracruz (Los Tuxtlas); in the broad sense of the 2022 monograph also Uxpanapa (Veracruz) and Tabasco, from 111 to 1,050 m; the Tabasco plants have been assigned to Ceratozamia gigantea since 2024
  • IUCN status: Endangered (EN, criterion B1ab(iii)), assessment published in 2022
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix I (whole genus, since 1985); Annex A in the European Union, seeds included
  • Documented hardiness: no data, neither from cultivation nor as frost records from its habitat (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, evergreen tropical rainforest on volcanic soils or karst rocks; no published growing advice
  • Habit and adult size: a large species; trunk 30 cm to 2.5 m (exceptionally 5 m) long and 18 to 45 cm across, leaves 0.7 to 3.7 m long (monograph, broad sense); in the strict sense of the original description, trunk 10 to 150 cm long and 18 to 41 cm across, leaves 0.72 to 2.72 m long
  • In the UK, US and Australia: declared by three American gardens and one Australian garden; none in the UK (see In cultivation)
  • Toxicity: no data for the species; treat it as poisonous, like all cycads (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Ceratozamia subroseophylla

Its clearest character is the female cone: when ripe, the base of its scales is pale pink, and its tip carries a short point (mucro). The new leaves are yellowish brown, and the petiole carries many stout prickles. The 2022 monograph, which includes the Uxpanapa populations, describes it as follows:

  • Trunk: above ground, upright then lying down, 30 to 250 cm (up to 500 cm) long and 18 to 45 cm across.
  • Leaves: 10 to 83, 72 to 370 cm long, upright, yellowish brown when they emerge; petiole 50 to 150 cm long, armed with 25 to 55 stout prickles 4 to 8.5 mm long.
  • Leaflets: 23 to 48 pairs, lance-shaped, papery, dark green, bluish-white beneath, with clearly visible veins, 18 to 45 cm long and 2.5 to 4 cm wide.
  • Male cones: cylindrical, 15 to 30 cm long and 3.1 to 5.4 cm across, green with reddish hairs, then greenish yellow.
  • Female cones: cylindrical, 15.5 to 40 cm long and 7 to 11.6 cm across, yellow with reddish to purple hairs when they emerge, green when ripe with the base of the scales pale pink, ending in a short point.
  • Seeds: oval, 2.9 to 3.8 cm long, with pinkish-white flesh turning light brown.

The original description (Martínez-Domínguez and colleagues, 2016), based on the Los Tuxtlas populations only, gives the measurements of the species in the strict sense: an above-ground trunk 10 to 150 cm long and 18 to 41 cm across; 2 to 83 ascending leaves 72 to 272 cm long; a petiole 29 to 104 cm long and a rachis 19 to 188 cm long, prickly except in seedlings; 7 to 40 leaflets (the text does not say whether these are pairs), oblong in young plants then lance-shaped, sickle-shaped in their outer half, papery, the middle ones 18 to 44.5 cm by 2.5 to 5 cm; a male cone 15 cm long; and a female cone 15.5 to 23.4 cm long and 7 to 7.8 cm across, with 128 to 137 green scales with a pale pink base covered in dark brown down.

The diagnosis stresses the very prickly, greenish-brown petiole and rachis, the yellowish-brown new leaves, the papery leaflets, brown at the base, lance-shaped and symmetrical in adults, and the female cone with a short point and green scales with a pink base. It describes the leaflets as not bluish-white beneath, whereas the detailed description in the same article describes them as bluish-white: the authors do not explain this internal contradiction.

Hybrids

No natural or garden hybrid has been documented.

Possible confusion

The species belongs to the Ceratozamia robusta complex, a group of large species with thick trunks, long leaves and big cones (Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2022). Possible confusions are therefore many:

  • Ceratozamia robusta: dark green female cone with sparse blackish hairs, scales with a protruding outer face and straight horns at a right angle, without a pink base; reddish-brown new leaves (Martínez-Domínguez and colleagues, 2022; Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2022).
  • Ceratozamia dominguezii, of Uxpanapa: caramel-coloured new leaves, the longest rachis in the complex, the centre of the outer face of the cone scales dark purple (Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2021); see Taxonomy.
  • Ceratozamia gigantea, of Tabasco: its plants were first referred to Ceratozamia subroseophylla because the herbarium specimens had no cones (see Taxonomy).
  • Ceratozamia miqueliana: present in the same Los Tuxtlas region, but with much broader leaflets (6 to 6.5 cm) and few of them, about fifteen pairs (Chemnick and Gregory, 1995).
  • Ceratozamia leptoceras and Ceratozamia oliversacksii, of western Mexico: they lack the greenish-brown petiole and rachis armed with many stout prickles of Ceratozamia subroseophylla; their leaflets are membranous in the former and very narrow in the latter (Martínez-Domínguez and colleagues, 2022; Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2022).

Without a cone, a Ceratozamia is hard to tell from a Zamia.

Taxonomy

Ceratozamia subroseophylla is accepted by The World List of Cycads, by the 2022 monograph and by the WCVP, the database behind POWO (read via GBIF on 30 October 2026). Its limits, on the other hand, are the subject of disagreement between specialists.

A species described in 2016

The species was described in 2016 in Phytotaxa by Lilí Martínez-Domínguez, Fernando Nicolalde-Morejón, Francisco Vergara-Silva and Dennis Stevenson, after a reassessment of four species already known: Ceratozamia miqueliana, with which it shares Los Tuxtlas, Ceratozamia mexicana, Ceratozamia robusta and Ceratozamia brevifrons. The authors distinguished it by its own morphological characters and by diagnostic DNA sequence variants (“DNA barcoding”). The plant had previously been grown as Ceratozamia robusta ‘Santiago Tuxtla’.

The disagreement over Ceratozamia dominguezii

In 2021, Miguel Ángel Pérez-Farrera and José Said Gutiérrez-Ortega described Ceratozamia dominguezii, from the lowland karst forests of Uxpanapa in south-eastern Veracruz. They separated it from the other species of the Ceratozamia robusta complex, including Ceratozamia subroseophylla, by leaf measurements and by qualitative characters: caramel-coloured new leaves, the longest rachises in the complex, papery leaflets, and a dark purple centre to the outer face of the cone scales.

The following year, the monograph by Martínez-Domínguez and colleagues (2022) placed Ceratozamia dominguezii in the synonymy of Ceratozamia subroseophylla: according to its authors, the Uxpanapa populations fall within the variation of the species as they define it, on the basis of vegetative and reproductive morphology and phenology. Their description of Ceratozamia subroseophylla therefore includes these populations, hence a range extended to Tabasco and very broad measurements.

This synonymy is not followed by everyone. The World List of Cycads explicitly rejects it: it notes that the authors of the monograph neither discussed the morphometric and qualitative differences published in 2021 nor provided supporting data, and it keeps Ceratozamia dominguezii as a distinct species “until convincing evidence is published”. Jody Haynes (2023), in his critical review of the monograph, also rejects this synonymy. Moreover, the morphometric analysis published with the description of Ceratozamia schiblii (2022) clearly separates the two species, Ceratozamia subroseophylla having notably longer petioles and Ceratozamia dominguezii longer rachises. The WCVP, on the other hand, follows the monograph: it treats Ceratozamia dominguezii as a synonym of Ceratozamia subroseophylla and records the latter from the Gulf of Mexico region and south-eastern Mexico.

The plants of Tabasco

The monograph listed under Ceratozamia subroseophylla a population from the municipality of Macuspana, in Tabasco, a new record for that state. In 2024, the same group of authors described these plants as a separate species, Ceratozamia gigantea, endemic to the mountain karst forests of Tabasco: according to that description, they had first been referred to Ceratozamia subroseophylla because the specimens had no cones. The World List of Cycads now gives Ceratozamia subroseophylla for Veracruz only.

What this means for the reader

This site follows The World List of Cycads and treats Ceratozamia dominguezii as a separate species. In the strict sense, Ceratozamia subroseophylla is therefore the plant of Los Tuxtlas. The measurements and range given by the monograph, which include Uxpanapa (and Tabasco), should be read with this in mind, and a plant from Uxpanapa sold under either name comes from the same population.

Place in the genus

The species was included in the phylogeny by Habib and colleagues (2023), based on material from Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden in Thailand, but its position is not discussed in the text. The 2024 study of the evolution of cone characters places it in the large Mexicana clade and notes that its lance-shaped leaflets arose independently of those of Ceratozamia vovidesii, of the Miqueliana clade.

Etymology and history

The epithet combines the Latin sub, “below”, and roseus, “rose-coloured”, with the Greek phyllon, “leaf”: it refers to the pale pink colour at the base of the megasporophylls, the fertile scales of the female cones, which are modified leaves (Haynes, 2022). The type is a female plant collected on 15 July 2014 by Lilí Martínez-Domínguez (no. 158) in the municipality of Santiago Tuxtla, at 425 m (holotype at the CIB herbarium; isotypes at MEXU and NY). The paratypes come from the same municipality (474 m, March 2014; two male plants, July 2014) and from the municipality of Tatahuicapan de Juárez (849 m). The original description states that the pale pink base of the scales can be seen at every stage of the female cone, hence its choice as an identification character. Before it was described, the plant was already in collections under the name Ceratozamia robusta ‘Santiago Tuxtla’.

Common names

No common name is recorded in English. The 2022 monograph records a name in the Popoluca language, “hymniom pekmuk”, from a herbarium label (M. Leonti 542); the collection is not located more precisely in the source. ‘Santiago Tuxtla’ is a horticultural label, not a common name.

In the wild

In the strict sense, Ceratozamia subroseophylla lives in the mountainous Los Tuxtlas region of southern Veracruz, on soils of volcanic origin in evergreen tropical rainforest, between about 420 and 1,050 m. In the broad sense of the 2022 monograph, which includes Uxpanapa and the Tabasco population since assigned to Ceratozamia gigantea, it also grows on karst rocks, from 111 m upwards.

The original description places the species in the mountains of the municipalities of Santiago Tuxtla and Tatahuicapan de Juárez, between 420 and 1,050 m, in relict and heavily disturbed evergreen tropical rainforest. The volcanic Los Tuxtlas massif dates from the Oligocene, and the region is considered a former floristic refuge (Wendt, 1987). The climate is hot and humid with summer rain: about 2,292 mm of rainfall a year and a mean temperature of 24.7 °C (76.5 °F) (García, 2004, cited by the authors).

A study of the extinction risk of the cycads of Veracruz (Gómez Díaz, 2025), which treats the two disputed species separately, counts 8 localities for Ceratozamia subroseophylla, an extent of occurrence of 1,365 km², 87% of the habitat transformed and 60% of the range outside protected areas; it ranks it among the most threatened cycads of the state. No pollination study specific to the species has been published.

Conservation status and regulation

Ceratozamia subroseophylla is listed as Endangered (EN, criterion B1ab(iii)) on the IUCN Red List, in an assessment by J.D. Bösenberg published in 2022: its range is restricted and the quality of its habitat is declining (status given by The World List of Cycads and confirmed by the Red List data distributed through GBIF, 30 October 2026). According to the 2022 monograph, the main threat is land-use change in Veracruz and Tabasco. In Mexico, the species is not listed in the NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 standard; a 2025 study proposes listing it as “in danger of extinction” (Gómez Díaz, 2025).

Like the whole genus, it has been covered by CITES Appendix I since 1 August 1985 (cycads had been in Appendix II since 1977), and by Annex A of Regulation (EC) No 338/97 in the European Union (annexes now set by Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026), seeds included. Species+ does not list the species under its own name (checked on 30 October 2026), but the listing covers the entire genus, including recently described species. International trade in wild-collected plants for commercial purposes is banned; only artificially propagated plants with the required permits can be traded.

In practice, buy only seed-grown plants with documents of origin, and note the name under which they are sold, including Ceratozamia robusta ‘Santiago Tuxtla’. This general information does not replace the official texts: check the regulations in force before buying, importing or exchanging plants.

Growing Ceratozamia subroseophylla

No source describes its cultivation specifically. It is known only that it was grown before its description, under the name Ceratozamia robusta ‘Santiago Tuxtla’, and that it is in the collection of Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden. The pointers below are drawn from its habitat and from the general rules for the genus; they have not been confirmed by published trials.

  • Light: partial or light shade; it is a plant of tropical forest.
  • Soil: rich in humus and free-draining.
  • Watering: regular during growth, never leaving water standing, reduced in winter.
  • Space: it is one of the large species of the genus, with leaves several metres long in adults and stout prickles; allow room and wear gloves.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

No outdoor planting with a documented result has been published. The American gardens that declare it, in southern Florida and southern California, do not say whether their plants grow outdoors or under glass.

Container cultivation

Young plants can be grown in a pot in a free-draining, humus-rich mix, kept warm and frost-free; adults quickly become too large for most containers.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In the United States, BGCI PlantSearch (queried on 30 October 2026) lists Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida), Naples Botanical Garden (Florida) and the Huntington (San Marino, California); the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center lists 10 accessions, and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden also listed the species in its online catalogue in October 2026. In Australia, BGCI lists James Cook University in Townsville (Queensland). No garden in the United Kingdom declares it. Outside these countries, BGCI lists the Francisco Javier Clavijero Botanic Garden in Xalapa.

BGCI also has a separate entry, “Ceratozamia robusta ‘Santiago Tuxtla’”, declared by Honolulu Botanical Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Melbourne) and a garden in Singapore. Since The World List of Cycads gives this as the name under which Ceratozamia subroseophylla was known in horticulture, these plants may belong to it, but their identity has not been checked. No garden states whether its plants grow outdoors.

Propagation

Propagation is from seed. The plants are male or female, and hand pollination is needed to obtain fertile seed in cultivation. No germination data specific to the species have been published. Handle seeds wearing gloves.

Pests and diseases

The original description shows a photograph of a defoliating caterpillar of the genus Eumaeus (a butterfly) on the species, without further detail; no disease specific to Ceratozamia subroseophylla has been documented. In cultivated Ceratozamia, growers mainly report rot in cold, sodden soil and leaf scorch after sudden exposure to full sun.

Cold hardiness

No data exist for Ceratozamia subroseophylla: no dated cultivation report, and no minimum temperature published for its low- and mid-elevation sites; the original description gives only a mean temperature of 24.7 °C (76.5 °F) for the Los Tuxtlas region.

Mediterranean and European experience

No cultivation of this species has been reported in Europe, under its current name or as Ceratozamia robusta ‘Santiago Tuxtla’, and the Jardin zoologique tropical in La Londe-les-Maures (Var, on the French Riviera) has published no observation of it. European results for the genus concern other species and cannot be transferred to it.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No dated cold record and no commercial hardiness rating have been published. A plant of tropical forest at low and middle elevations, it is best kept frost-free, under glass or indoors in cold regions, until documented trials exist.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Ceratozamia subroseophylla has been published. The risk is well documented in other cycads: their tissues, and above all their seeds, contain toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived, a compound harmful to the liver and nervous system. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, treat the plant as poisonous: keep seeds and leaves out of reach of children and animals, wear gloves to clean seeds, and if any part is swallowed, call a poison centre, a doctor or a vet straight away.

The medicinal use reported below is no proof that the plant is safe: never consume any preparation made from a cycad.

Traditional uses

The 2022 monograph reports, from the same herbarium label (M. Leonti 542), that the trunk is boiled to make a medicinal tea against kidney stones, among the Popoluca of Veracruz. This use has not been the subject of any published study.

Frequently asked questions

Why the name subroseophylla?

Because of the colour of its female cones. The base of their scales, which are modified leaves, turns pale pink when ripe; the epithet means roughly “with leaves rosy at the base”.

Is Ceratozamia dominguezii the same species?

Specialists disagree. The 2022 monograph and the WCVP treat it as a synonym, but The World List of Cycads and Jody Haynes (2023) reject this synonymy for lack of evidence. This site follows The World List of Cycads and treats the two species separately.

Is it the former Ceratozamia robusta ‘Santiago Tuxtla’?

Yes. According to The World List of Cycads, this is the name under which the plant circulated in horticulture before it was described in 2016.

Does it grow in Tabasco?

Not according to The World List of Cycads, which gives it for Veracruz only. The 2022 monograph had added a population from Tabasco, but those plants were described in 2024 as a separate species, Ceratozamia gigantea.

How can I recognise it?

By the female cone. The base of its scales is pale pink and its tip carries a short point. The petiole is armed with many stout prickles, and the new leaves are yellowish brown.

Can it take frost?

Nobody knows, and it seems unlikely. No documented trial exists, and it is a plant of tropical forest at low and middle elevations: keep it frost-free.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Martínez-Domínguez, L., Nicolalde-Morejón, F., Vergara-Silva, F. & Stevenson, D.W. (2016). Integrative taxonomy of Mexican cycads: biogeography, morphology and DNA barcoding corroborate a new sympatric species in Ceratozamia (Zamiaceae). Phytotaxa 268(1): 25–45. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.268.1.2 [Original description; taxonomic part available on Plazi. Primary source.]
  • Pérez-Farrera, M.A., Gutiérrez-Ortega, J.S., Vovides, A.P., Calonje, M. & Díaz-Jiménez, P. (2021). Ceratozamia dominguezii (Zamiaceae): a new cycad species from southeastern Mexico. Taxonomy 1(4): 345–359. https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy1040026 [Description of the related species.]
  • Martínez-Domínguez, L., Nicolalde-Morejón, F., Vergara-Silva, F. & Stevenson, D.W. (2022). Monograph of Ceratozamia (Zamiaceae, Cycadales): an endangered genus. PhytoKeys 208: 1–102. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.208.80382 [Monograph of the genus; open access.]
  • Martínez-Domínguez, L., Nicolalde-Morejón, F., González-Aguilar, M.A., Vergara-Silva, F. & Stevenson, D.W. (2024). Ceratozamia gigantea (Zamiaceae), a new species of cycad, endemic to the mountain karst forests of Tabasco, Mexico: what the reproductive structures revealed. Kew Bulletin 79(3): 543–558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12225-024-10209-0 [Description of the Tabasco species formerly referred to Ceratozamia subroseophylla; subscription access.]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2023). Critical review of “Monograph of Ceratozamia (Zamiaceae, Cycadales): an endangered genus” published in PhytoKeys 208: 1–102 (2022). Phytotaxa 612(2): 159–200. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.612.2.4 [Critical review of the monograph.]
  • Pérez-Farrera, M.A., Gutiérrez-Ortega, J.S., Gregory, T.J., Chemnick, J., Salas-Morales, S., Calonje, M. & Díaz-Jiménez, P. (2022). Ceratozamia schiblii (Zamiaceae): a new cycad species from the eastern mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. Taxonomy 2(3): 324–338. https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy2030025 [Morphometrics of the Ceratozamia robusta complex; open access.]
  • Habib, S., Gong, Y., Dong, S., Lindstrom, A., Stevenson, D.W., Wu, H. & Zhang, S. (2023). Phylotranscriptomics shed light on intrageneric relationships and historical biogeography of Ceratozamia (Cycadales). Plants 12(3): 478. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12030478 [Phylogeny of the genus; open access.]
  • Martínez-Domínguez, L., Nicolalde-Morejón, F., Vergara-Silva, F., Gernandt, D.S., Huesca-Domínguez, I. & Stevenson, D.W. (2024). Evolutionary trends of reproductive phenotype in Cycadales: an analysis of morphological evolution in Ceratozamia. Annals of Botany 134(4): 631–650. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcae058 [Evolution of characters; open access.]
  • Chemnick, J. & Gregory, T.J. (1995, published 1996). A new species of Ceratozamia (Zamiaceae) from Oaxaca, Mexico with comments on distribution, habitat, and relationships. Phytologia 79(1): 51–57. [Measurements of Ceratozamia miqueliana.]
  • Gómez Díaz, J.A. (2025). Assessing the extinction risk of Veracruz cycads. Cambridge Prisms: Extinction 3: e7. https://doi.org/10.1017/ext.2025.5 [Risk indicators; open access.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Ceratozamia subroseophylla. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T103631959A103632275. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T103631959A103632275.en [Red List assessment; category confirmed by GBIF.]
  • 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.]
  • 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.]