Zamia fairchildiana

Zamia fairchildiana is a cycad of the wet forests of the southern Pacific slope of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama, from the Osa Peninsula to Punta Burica. This species of the genus Zamia forms a trunk that can reach 2.5 m, topped by leaves 1 to 2 m long with glossy, lopsided leaflets. Described in 1982 by the Costa Rican botanist Luis Diego Gómez, it was long used as a catch-all name for several trunk-forming Zamia of Costa Rica and Panama, and the IUCN rates it Near Threatened.

Key facts about Zamia fairchildiana

  • Accepted name: Zamia fairchildiana L.D.Gómez (1982), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) and by GBIF; POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: no synonym; Zamia pseudomonticola, sometimes sunk into it in the past, is now accepted as a separate species; plants of central Panama called Zamia fairchildiana until 1998 are now Zamia elegantissima
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no English name attested; “palmito” in Costa Rica, according to a naturalist author
  • Natural range: Costa Rica (Puntarenas and San José provinces) and Panama (Chiriquí)
  • IUCN status: Near Threatened (NT), criterion C1, 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 cold data; specialist sources treat it as a tropical plant that will not stand frost (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, understorey of moist to pluvial forest from sea level to 1,000 m, on limestone to clay soils, often on slopes; growth depends strongly on light
  • Habit and adult size: semi-emergent to emergent trunk up to 2.5 m tall and 20 cm across (taller plants reported by growers); 5 to 15 leaves 80 to 205 cm long
  • In the UK, US and Australia: listed by Montgomery Botanical Center (identity of the plants uncertain) and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; declared to BGCI by about a dozen American gardens, by the National Botanic Garden of Wales and by Sydney and Cairns
  • Toxicity: no data specific to the species; treat it as poisonous, like all cycads (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Zamia fairchildiana

The leaflets are the main clue. According to the revision of the Costa Rican Zamia by Rafael Acuña-Castillo (2010), they are strongly asymmetric and S-shaped, sickle-shaped, smooth and glossy, 20 to 40 cm long and 2 to 5.5 cm wide, with an entire margin except on the lower side near the tip, which is finely toothed. The tip is short (less than a fifth of the leaflet) and curves slightly towards the end of the leaf.

Trunk and leaves

  • Trunk: semi-emergent to emergent, up to 2.5 m tall and 20 cm across, with whitish-yellow to brown bark.
  • Leaves: 5 to 15 per plant, 80 to 205 cm long, with 10 to 27 pairs of leaflets; petiole and rachis armed with prickles.

Growers have seen taller plants. Jungle Music, a cycad nursery in San Diego, California, describes trunks up to about 3 m (10 ft) and 13 cm (5 in) thick, rather smooth for a cycad, with a crown of about twenty bright green leaves 1.2 to 1.5 m (4 to 5 ft) long and a few jagged teeth at the end of the leaflets; on the Osa Peninsula its author saw a trunk cut through with a machete that had fallen, rooted into the forest floor and grown up again well overhead. Jay Vannini, a naturalist who grows Central American cycads in the United States and Guatemala, gives a mature trunk of more than 1.9 m (6 ft) and describes the species as a large, trunk-forming plant with prickly petioles and many leaflets when mature (Vannini, 2019).

Cones and seeds

  • Male cones: almost cylindrical, 10 to 29 cm long and 2 to 2.8 cm across, brown and finely downy.
  • Female cone: usually single, barrel-shaped, 10 to 20 cm long, with a conical sterile tip more than 1 cm long.
  • Seeds: orange to pinkish.

Hybrids

No hybrid has been demonstrated. The 2010 revision mentions possible intermediate forms with Zamia pseudomonticola between 800 and 1,200 m in the Fila Costeña Sur, where the two species come close; the author stresses that only a genetic analysis could confirm this.

Possible confusion

The name Zamia fairchildiana has often been applied to other species, in herbaria as in collections, and provenance is the best clue. The main look-alikes are:

  • Zamia pseudomonticola, of the mountain ranges of southern Costa Rica and western Panama, mostly above 1,000 m: very similar foliage, long treated as a synonym; its greenish cones separate it;
  • Zamia gomeziana, of the Caribbean slope of the Cordillera de Talamanca: almost straight leaflets, with an entire margin and a very long tip;
  • Zamia elegantissima, of central Panama, described in 1998: from 1982 to 1998 its plants were called Zamia fairchildiana; its leaflets are more symmetrical and more clearly toothed on both margins;
  • Zamia acuminata, of the central Pacific of Costa Rica, some collections of which were wrongly placed under Zamia fairchildiana: a much longer leaflet tip, and, according to Vannini (2019), an underground or very short trunk (up to 40 cm), much shorter mature leaves and a different arrangement of the pollen sacs on its compact cones.

Vannini (2019) also notes that a record of Zamia obliqua from south-western Costa Rica is very probably an aberrant young Zamia fairchildiana, after Lindström and colleagues (2013).

Taxonomy

Zamia fairchildiana is an accepted name according to The World List of Cycads and GBIF; POWO could not be consulted directly. The species was described in 1982 by Luis Diego Gómez in the journal Phytologia. The holotype (L.D. Gómez 7948, collected near Sirena, río Claro, on the Osa Peninsula, at 50 m) disappeared from the national herbarium of Costa Rica (CR). In 2009, Rafael Acuña-Castillo and Luis Diego Gómez therefore designated a lectotype in the journal Brenesia: a collection made by J. Gómez-Laurito and M. Bermúdez (no. 2665) on 10 May 1977 on Violín Island, at Sierpe (Osa), at 10 m, kept at the USJ herbarium. Vannini (2019) notes that this lectotype is sterile.

A name whose meaning has narrowed

The name has not changed, but its meaning has narrowed: the description of Zamia elegantissima (1998) removed the populations of central Panama, and that of Zamia gomeziana (2010) a specimen from the Caribbean slope. The relationship with Zamia pseudomonticola remains debated: The World List of Cycads accepts both species, Trebrown, a British specialist nursery, calls them very closely related, and Vannini (2019) regards Zamia pseudomonticola as a doubtfully distinct sibling species, citing Whitelock (2002) and Calonje (2006), because plants matching its description have not been found again at the type locality. For Vannini, Zamia fairchildiana itself is a highly variable “catch-all” that may in fact include several distinct taxa. A French specialist grower expressed a similar view on the Fous de palmiers forum in 2014, suggesting that the differences between the two may reflect growing conditions. These are opinions; no formal change has been published.

Etymology and history

The species honours David Grandison Fairchild (1869–1954), the American botanist and great plant explorer whose name is borne by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Florida (etymology given by The World List of Cycads, after a communication from L.D. Gómez).

Common names

No English name is attested. Vannini (2019) gives “palmito” as its name in Costa Rica; no other source confirms that this name is specific to the species. No French or Italian name exists.

In the wild

According to Acuña-Castillo (2010), the species occupies the lowlands of the southern Pacific slope of Costa Rica, south of the río Térraba basin, and the far west of Panama, at Punta Burica (Chiriquí). It grows in moist, wet and pluvial tropical and premontane forests from sea level to 1,000 m, on flat ground as well as steep slopes, on limestone to clay soils. It is found in Corcovado and Piedras Blancas national parks, the Golfito wildlife refuge and the Golfo Dulce forest reserve, mostly in the understorey of primary forest but also in old secondary forest. Vannini (2019) adds that it reaches the uplands of western Panama, that it occasionally grows near the shore and can be exposed to salt spray on the Osa Peninsula (Calonje, 2006, cited by Vannini), and that it is still extremely common at some sites, according to recent visitors.

Ecology

It is one of the two best-studied Zamia of Costa Rica. At Rincón de Osa, Catalina López-Gallego and Patricia O’Neil (2010) compared populations in primary forest and in degraded habitats: growth and reproductive effort depend strongly on light, and populations in open habitats are genetically more uniform. Cones appear mainly in the rainy season, and only a few individuals produce them each year. Erotylid beetles covered in pollen have been seen entering and leaving ripe cones, which suggests that they act as pollinators; on slopes, the seeds roll downhill. A study by L.D. Gómez (1993) at the Wilson Botanical Garden in San Vito attributes short-range seed dispersal, over a few tens of metres, to birds (tanagers, saltators, thrushes); the 2010 revision, however, refers those plants to Zamia pseudomonticola.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia fairchildiana is rated Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List, in the assessment by J.D. Bösenberg published in 2022, under criterion C1, which concerns a limited population in decline (The World List of Cycads; GBIF gives the same category; the Red List itself could not be consulted). A large part of its range lies within protected areas of south-western Costa Rica.

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, it falls under CITES Appendix II, where the genus has been listed since 4 February 1977. International trade in live plants requires an export permit. The listing carries annotation #4: seeds, pollen, seedlings and tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers are not covered by CITES. 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 separate entry for the species, which is covered by the listing “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.

Growing Zamia fairchildiana

Zamia fairchildiana is a warm-growing, tropical plant. Vannini (2019) notes that, because it is easy to obtain, generic “Zamia fairchildiana” from the lowlands of south-western Costa Rica are widely grown in public gardens and private tropical collections around the world. Jungle Music writes that it likes warmth, humidity and good drainage, prefers filtered light and is not suited to areas that freeze. Simon Lavaud, of the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu, places it in his group of the Zamia of Costa Rica, Panama and the lowland forests of South America, rated “difficult” outside the tropics (Lavaud, 2023). For this group he recommends:

  • a free-draining compost and water that are neutral to acid;
  • night temperatures around 22 °C (71.6 °F), with only brief spells at about 15 °C (59 °F) tolerated;
  • day temperatures of 28 to 30 °C (82.4 to 86 °F); most species tolerate 34 to 35 °C (93.2 to 95 °F), but heat peaks can damage new leaves;
  • high air humidity, between 70 and 90 per cent, for optimal growth;
  • in Europe, a glasshouse, conservatory, bright heated room or growth chamber, because the climate is too cool and too dry for these species even in summer.

These are recommendations from experience for a group of species, not measurements made on Zamia fairchildiana. In the wild, growth and coning have been shown to depend strongly on light (López-Gallego and O’Neil, 2010), which suggests giving cultivated plants bright, filtered light rather than deep shade; this is a deduction from field data, not a growing trial.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Outdoor planting is only realistic in frost-free tropical or near-tropical gardens. In 2009, a French visitor to the Wilson Botanical Garden near San Vito, in southern Costa Rica, reported on the Fous de palmiers forum seeing “many” Zamia fairchildiana planted throughout the garden and presented as the local endemic species, while African Encephalartos visibly suffered from the very wet climate; Acuña-Castillo (2010), however, refers the Zamia of that garden to Zamia pseudomonticola, so the identification is uncertain.

Container cultivation

Container culture under glass is the only option in cool climates. Use a free-draining, neutral to slightly acid compost, keep the plant warm all year, give it high humidity and bright filtered light, and allow for its eventual size: with a trunk and leaves up to 2 m long, an adult needs a large glasshouse or conservatory.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: widely grown in American collections, declared by one British and two Australian gardens, but the identity of plants grown under this name is often uncertain.

  • United States: Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists seven accession numbers under Zamia fairchildiana in its online catalogue (two older numbers, four from 2007–2008 and one from 2018), with the remark “Accepted name: Zamia cf. elegantissima”: the garden itself thus casts doubt on their identity. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Coral Gables) lists it in its online catalogue (Garden Explorer, updated on 16 October 2026). BGCI also records it at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Florida), the Huntington, Ganna Walska Lotusland and the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley (California), the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, Duke University (North Carolina), Lauritzen Gardens (Nebraska), Denver Botanic Gardens and the USDA germplasm collection at Beltsville (queried on 25 October 2026). Vannini (2019) grows it in his own collection in the United States.
  • United Kingdom: the National Botanic Garden of Wales declares it to BGCI.
  • Australia: the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney lists it in its online catalogue (Garden Explorer, updated on 1 October 2026), and Cairns Botanic Gardens (Queensland) declares it to BGCI.

Outside these countries, BGCI lists gardens in Costa Rica (Parque Zoológico y Jardín Botánico Nacional Simón Bolívar, San José), Canada (Montreal), France (Lyon), the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Utrecht), Belgium (Meise), the Czech Republic (Prague), Russia (Novosibirsk) and China (Shenzhen). A BGCI declaration shows that a garden held the plant at some point, not that it is alive today, and the sources do not say whether these plants are grown outdoors or under glass.

Propagation

Like all Zamia, the species has separate male and female plants and is propagated from seed. No germination figures specific to the species have been published. Germinated seed has circulated among French growers since at least 2009. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4, but they must come from plants of legal origin.

Pests and diseases

In the wild, caterpillars of the butterfly Eumaeus godartii attack young and mature leaves, sometimes the cones and stems, in Costa Rica as in Panama (Jones, 2002, cited by Acuña-Castillo, 2010). Chrysomelid beetles (Aulacoscelis) and erotylid beetles (Nomotus) eat young leaves, and unidentified leaf miners have been observed. No problem specific to cultivation has been documented; for his group of lowland tropical Zamia, Lavaud (2023) warns that suboptimal conditions lead to weak growth and a risk of root rot.

Cold hardiness

No measured data exist on the cold tolerance of Zamia fairchildiana. Its range runs from sea level to 1,000 m in the wet forests of the southern Pacific slope, without frost, and Jungle Music states that it is not suited to areas that freeze.

Mediterranean and European experience

No in-ground planting has been reported in France or elsewhere in Europe, and no dated frost episode concerns the species. A grower based in Belley (Ain) and Montpellier, in France, reported on the Fous de palmiers forum in November 2009 that his plants, in a glasshouse, produced all their new leaves in November, and in December 2012 that a plant in a heated conservatory had made a new leaf in midwinter; neither message gives a minimum temperature. Lavaud (2023), who lives in Montpellier, compares the climates of these lowland Zamia with his own: even in July and August, nights around 19 °C (66.2 °F) are below what these plants need, and the air is far drier. For readers in Mediterranean-type climates such as California or southern Australia, as in the UK, it remains a plant for a heated glasshouse.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No dated cold record has been published. Trebrown gives the species a cold hardiness zone of 10b in its catalogue, without stating the basis of this commercial rating; it should not be taken as a measured limit. In the UK it needs a heated glasshouse all year.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia fairchildiana 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, and for Zamia furfuracea the ASPCA cites cycasin and BMAA, a neurotoxic amino acid, with vomiting, bloody diarrhoea and liver damage in dogs, cats and horses; the seeds are the most dangerous part. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, treat the plant as poisonous: keep seeds and leaves out of reach of children and animals, and wear gloves to clean seeds. If any part is swallowed, contact a poison centre, a doctor or a vet straight away.

Traditional uses

No traditional use has been documented.

Frequently asked questions

Where does Zamia fairchildiana grow?

In south-western Costa Rica, on the southern Pacific slope (Osa Peninsula, Golfito, the Diquís valley), and in the far west of Panama (Punta Burica), from sea level to 1,000 m.

How big does it get?

Its trunk can reach 2.5 m in the botanical descriptions, and growers report plants of about 3 m, with leaves 0.8 to 2 m long. Understorey plants often stay smaller.

How can it be told from Zamia pseudomonticola?

With difficulty on the foliage alone. Zamia pseudomonticola grows mostly above 1,000 m and has greenish cones, whereas those of Zamia fairchildiana are brown. Provenance helps a great deal, and some authors doubt that the two are really distinct.

And from Zamia elegantissima?

By its leaflets, which are lopsided and toothed only on the lower side near the tip, and by its range: Zamia elegantissima grows in central Panama, on the Caribbean side, and has more symmetrical leaflets toothed on both margins. Plants from central Panama labelled Zamia fairchildiana before 1998 belong to what is now Zamia elegantissima.

Why “fairchildiana”?

In honour of David Fairchild (1869–1954), the American botanist and plant explorer.

Is it endangered?

Not seriously. It has been rated Near Threatened (NT) by the IUCN since 2022, and a good part of its populations lies within protected areas.

Can it be grown in the UK?

Yes, but only in a heated glasshouse or conservatory: it is a tropical plant that will not stand frost, and no cold tolerance data exist.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Gómez, L.D. (1982). Plantae Mesoamericanae Novae II. Phytologia 50(6): 401–404. [Protologue; not consulted; title taken from the bibliography of Acuña-Castillo (2010).]
  • Gómez, L.D. (1993). Birds as short-range seed dispersers of Zamia fairchildiana in SW Costa Rica. Revista de Biología Tropical 41: 905–906. [Cited after Acuña-Castillo (2010); not consulted.]
  • Acuña-Castillo, R.H. & Gómez, L.D. (2009). Selección de un lectotipo para Zamia fairchildiana L.D.Gómez (Zamiaceae). Brenesia 71–72: 65–66. [Lectotypification; reference taken from The World List of Cycads, not consulted.]
  • Acuña-Castillo, R.H. (2010). Revisión taxonómica y morfológica y distribución de Zamia (Zamiaceae) en Costa Rica. Master’s thesis, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José. hdl:10669/84075 [Revision not published in a journal; full text consulted.]
  • López-Gallego, C. & O’Neil, P. (2010). Life-history variation following habitat degradation associated with differing fine-scale spatial genetic structure in a rainforest cycad. Population Ecology 52: 191–201. [Population study at Rincón de Osa; cited after Acuña-Castillo (2010), not consulted.]
  • Vannini, J. (2019). Central American and Panamanian cycads in field and greenhouse. Exotica Esoterica, 17 February 2019. [Online article by a naturalist and collector; read.]
  • Lavaud, S. (2023). Comment cultiver les Zamia en climat tempéré. Cycadales.eu. [Growing advice for groups of species; read directly.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Zamia fairchildiana. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T42163A69842848. [Current assessment (NT); cited by The World List of Cycads, Red List page not consulted.]
  • 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.]
  • 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.]