Zamia fischeri

Zamia fischeri is a small cycad of north-eastern Mexico, found in the states of Hidalgo, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas, between 140 and 900 m. This species of the genus Zamia, described in 1845, has only a few short, drooping leaves with narrow, pointed leaflets. For decades almost every plant grown under its name actually belonged to another species, Zamia vazquezii of Veracruz, which botanists from New York and Naples separated in a paper published in 1998; the confusion persists in the trade. The IUCN rates Zamia fischeri Endangered.

Key facts about Zamia fischeri

  • Accepted name: Zamia fischeri Miq. (1845), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) and by GBIF; IPNI also records it as Zamia fischeri Miq. ex Lem. for the same publication; POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: Palmifolium fischeri (Miq.) Kuntze (1891); the name Zamia fischeri was long misapplied to Zamia vazquezii
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no verified common name, in English or in any other language
  • Natural range: Mexico (Hidalgo, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas), from 140 to 900 m
  • IUCN status: Endangered (EN), criterion A4cd, assessment by J.D. Bösenberg published in 2022
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II; Annex B in the European Union; “in danger of extinction” (P) in the Mexican list NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010
  • Documented hardiness: no measured data (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: no verified published data on the wild habitat; in cultivation, a free-draining, neutral to slightly alkaline compost, according to a specialist nursery
  • Habit and adult size: underground stem; fewer than six leaves, under 30 cm long, with fewer than 12 pairs of lanceolate leaflets (Stevenson and colleagues, 1998)
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Montgomery Botanical Center lists two accessions; many other gardens declare the name to BGCI, but some of these plants may be Zamia vazquezii
  • Toxicity: no analysis specific to the species; treat it as poisonous, like the other Zamia (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Zamia fischeri

It is one of the smallest Zamia: an underground stem, a few short, drooping leaves, and thin, lanceolate leaflets with a sharp tip. Stevenson, Sabato, Moretti and De Luca (1998), who fixed the identity of the species, separate it from Zamia vazquezii by simple criteria:

  • Zamia fischeri: fewer than six leaves, under 30 cm long, drooping, with fewer than 12 pairs of lanceolate leaflets with a sharp tip; 2n = 16 chromosomes;
  • Zamia vazquezii: 3 to 30 leaves 30 cm to 1 m long, upright, with 12 to 25 (30) pairs of ovate to obpyriform (reverse pear-shaped), acuminate, finely toothed leaflets that recall the ferns Cyrtomium or some Adiantum; 2n = 18.

The modern description is in the revision of the Zamia of “Mega-Mexico” by Nicolalde-Morejón, Vovides and Stevenson (2009).

Hybrids

No natural or horticultural hybrid has been published. In cultivation, the long confusion with Zamia vazquezii has mainly produced labelling errors.

Possible confusion

With Zamia vazquezii

The main and historical confusion is with Zamia vazquezii, which was described precisely to resolve it. According to Stevenson and colleagues (1998), most herbarium specimens and cultivated plants under the name Zamia fischeri matched neither Miquel’s description nor his drawings: they had more and larger leaves, leaflets of a different shape and texture, and 2n = 18 instead of 2n = 16. The two species also differ in origin: the Sierra Madre Oriental (San Luis Potosí, Querétaro) for Zamia fischeri, and Veracruz, where the populations are separate, for Zamia vazquezii.

The confusion continues in the trade. On the French Fous de palmiers forum, plants sold as Zamia fischeri were recognised as Zamia vazquezii (2010 and 2015), and a specialist grower reported in 2014 that a seed dealer was still offering seed of Zamia vazquezii under that name. The same forum recalls that the two species are almost impossible to tell apart as seedlings, because the first leaves of cycads are poor guides to the adult leaves (2010). Even Jungle Music, a cycad nursery in San Diego, California, still presents Zamia vazquezii as “AKA Zamia fischeri”, and Trebrown, a British specialist nursery, notes that Zamia fischeri is very similar to Zamia vazquezii. Before naming a plant Zamia fischeri, check its adult characters and its provenance.

With other Mexican Zamia

Zamia inermis, from Veracruz, also has a petiole without prickles, as its name says, but it is a larger plant. Zamia loddigesii, widespread on the Atlantic slope of Mexico, has much longer leaves and more leaflets. Zamia furfuracea, with its thick, downy leaflets, cannot be mistaken for it.

Taxonomy

Zamia fischeri is an accepted name according to The World List of Cycads and GBIF; POWO could not be consulted directly. The history of the name is told by Stevenson, Sabato, Moretti and De Luca in “What is Zamia fischeri Miquel?”, published in Delpinoa, the journal of the Naples botanical garden (volume 37–38, dated 1995–1996, printed in November 1998).

A name published in a nursery catalogue

In 1844, the Dutch botanist Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel sent the Belgian nurseryman Louis Van Houtte a letter containing the Latin description of a new Zamia, which he intended to publish in his monograph of the cycads in the journal Linnaea. Van Houtte printed it in his catalogue, Hortus Vanhoutteanus (1845), attributing it to Miquel: this is the publication that counts, even though it cites no specimen. The plant came from the botanical garden of St Petersburg (“ex Horto Petropolitano in H. Houtte vecta”, according to The World List of Cycads).

As no specimen had been cited, Stevenson and Sabato designated a neotype in 1986: the specimen kept at Utrecht (U) that had served for the drawing published by Miquel in Linnaea in 1847. Until 1932 the name was used consistently, in the monographs of Miquel and Regel, by de Candolle (1868), Dyer (1883) and Schuster (1932), for about six similar collections kept at Utrecht or St Petersburg; the Berlin material was destroyed during the Second World War.

The separation of Zamia vazquezii

After 1932, plants from Veracruz entered cultivation under the name Zamia fischeri, and Vovides and colleagues (1983, 1992) treated them under that name in the flora of Veracruz. Yet the plants from San Luis Potosí grown for fifty years at Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami (accession 57-149), at the New York Botanical Garden and, for more than fifteen years, at the botanical garden of the University of Naples had kept the form described by Miquel, and cytology confirmed the difference (Moretti and colleagues, 1991; Caputo and colleagues, 1996). The authors therefore described the Veracruz plants as a new species, Zamia vazquezii, after the Mexican botanist Mario Vázquez Torres, who had discovered it (type collected on 22 January 1989).

Authorship and doubtful synonyms

Author citations vary between databases: The World List of Cycads gives Zamia fischeri Miq., while IPNI records the 1845 publication under Zamia fischeri Miq. ex Lem. and another entry under Miq. alone. The only synonym cited by The World List of Cycads is Palmifolium fischeri (Miq.) Kuntze (1891). IPNI also records Zamia tenuifolia Fisch. ex Miq. (Linnaea, 1846) and Zamia forsteri hort. ex J.Schust. (1932, published in synonymy), which other compilations, Trebrown’s catalogue among them, refer to Zamia fischeri; this has not been confirmed at source, and The World List of Cycads does not cite them.

Place in the genus

The revision of the Zamia of Mega-Mexico by Nicolalde-Morejón, Vovides and Stevenson (2009), cited by The World List of Cycads, treats Zamia fischeri as a distinct species. The transcriptome phylogeny of Lindstrom and colleagues (2024), which included a sample from Tamaulipas, strongly supports a small Fischeri clade made up of Zamia vazquezii, Zamia fischeri and Zamia inermis, first recognised by Calonje and colleagues (2019). Most of their analyses place this clade as sister to the Caribbean clade of the West Indies and Florida, the group of Zamia erosa and Zamia integrifolia, rather than with the other mainland species; the authors point to shared characters such as the unarmed petiole (Miquel had already related Zamia fischeri to the Caribbean species on that ground in 1861, and Caputo and colleagues placed it in the Caribbean clade in 2004), and date the split between the two clades to about 26 million years ago, with speciation within the Fischeri clade in the early Miocene. Its species have some of the smallest genomes in the genus. In 2018, Lei and colleagues published the complete chloroplast genome of a plant identified as Zamia fischeri, which grouped with Zamia furfuracea in their analysis; the paper does not discuss the identity of the plant, which calls for caution given the confusion with Zamia vazquezii.

Etymology and history

The epithet honours Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von Fischer (1782–1854), a Russian botanist of German origin and director of the botanical garden of St Petersburg (Whitelock, 2002, as given by The World List of Cycads), where the plant described came from.

Italy has played a notable part in its recent history: three of the four authors who fixed the identity of the species worked at the University of Naples, where authentic plants from San Luis Potosí had been grown for more than fifteen years by the late 1990s, side by side with Zamia vazquezii, each keeping its own characters.

Common names

No verifiable common name is attested; the Huastec names sometimes attributed to it online are not supported by The World List of Cycads, the source usually given for them.

In the wild

Zamia fischeri is endemic to north-eastern Mexico: The World List of Cycads records it in the states of Hidalgo, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas. According to the inventory of the Mexican Zamiaceae by Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues (2014), it grows between 140 and 900 m, in the Gulf of Mexico and Sierra Madre Oriental biogeographical regions. The populations of San Luis Potosí and neighbouring Querétaro are separate from those of Zamia vazquezii in Veracruz (Stevenson and colleagues, 1998).

No reliable description of its habitat (forest type, soil, climate) has been published.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia fischeri is rated Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List, in the assessment by J.D. Bösenberg published in 2022 (assessed in 2020), under criterion A4cd: a population reduction observed or expected over a period spanning past and future, linked to habitat decline and collecting (The World List of Cycads; GBIF gives the same category; the Red List itself could not be consulted). In Mexico, the species is listed as “in danger of extinction” (P) in the NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 standard, according to the table of Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues (2014).

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, the species falls under CITES Appendix II, where the genus has been listed since 4 February 1977; Species+ has a separate entry for it. Annotation #4 excludes from CITES seeds, pollen, and seedlings and tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers; international trade in plants requires an export permit. In the European Union the species falls under Annex B of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, whose current annexes are set by Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026.

Databases checked on 19 October 2026 (Species+, GBIF, The World List of Cycads, IPNI, Crossref). 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 fischeri

The true Zamia fischeri is rare in cultivation: many plants sold under the name are Zamia vazquezii (see Possible confusion). The only cultivation documented in a publication is that of the botanical gardens of Miami, New York and Naples, where plants from San Luis Potosí kept their characters for decades (Stevenson and colleagues, 1998). The 2012–2013 seed list of the Naples botanical garden still offered material of Zamia fischeri grown in its Califano glasshouses.

Simon Lavaud, of the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu, places the species among the Zamia of Mexico and northern Central America, which he rates of medium difficulty, most of them being used to a marked dry season (Lavaud, 2023). For this group he recommends:

  • a free-draining compost, neutral or slightly alkaline, largely mineral; any kind of water;
  • in winter, 5 to 10 °C (41 to 50 °F), with daytime rises to 20 to 25 °C (68 to 77 °F), and a compost kept fairly dry but never parched;
  • in summer, 15 to 20 °C (59 to 68 °F) at night and 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F) by day, up to 40 °C (104 °F) with generous watering, and at least four to six months of summer temperatures a year.

These are recommendations for a group of species, not measurements made on Zamia fischeri.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

No in-ground trial of the true Zamia fischeri outside the tropics has been documented. In the United States, the plants from San Luis Potosí at Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami have been grown for decades in a frost-free tropical climate (Stevenson and colleagues, 1998), but the paper does not say whether they are outdoors or under cover.

Container cultivation

Its small size makes it easy to keep in a pot. Follow the advice above: a mineral, free-draining compost, a cool but frost-free and rather dry winter, and a warm summer with regular watering. Make sure first that the plant really is Zamia fischeri.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: the name is widely declared, but because of the confusion with Zamia vazquezii, only documented provenance guarantees the identity of the plants.

  • United States: Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists two accession numbers from 2001 in its online catalogue. BGCI records the name, under several author citations, at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Huntington, Ganna Walska Lotusland, San Diego Botanic Garden and the San Diego Zoo, the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the National Tropical Botanical Garden, the Honolulu Botanical Gardens and Waimea Valley (Hawaii), the Boyce Thompson Arboretum (Arizona), the United States Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Phipps Conservatory (Pittsburgh) and Lincoln Park Conservatory (Chicago), among others (queried on 25 October 2026).
  • United Kingdom: Glasgow Botanic Gardens and RHS Garden Wisley declare it to BGCI.
  • Australia: the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney lists it in its online catalogue (Garden Explorer, updated on 1 October 2026); Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mount Coot-tha, Cairns Botanic Gardens, the Botanic Garden of Adelaide and the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens declare it to BGCI.

In all, more than fifty gardens worldwide declare the name to BGCI, including gardens elsewhere in Europe and in Gibraltar, South Africa, New Zealand, China and Mexico. Given the history of the name, some of these plants are probably Zamia vazquezii; this is a deduction from the documented confusion, not a checked fact. A BGCI declaration shows that a garden held a plant under this name 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

From seed, from male and female plants of verified identity, with hand pollination. Given the confusion with Zamia vazquezii, checking the parent plants is essential to obtain genuine seed. No germination data specific to the species have been published. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4, but they must come from plants of legal origin.

Pests and diseases

A new virus, provisionally named cycad leaf necrosis virus, was isolated from Zamia fischeri showing chlorosis, necrosis and ring spots on the leaves: it is the first badnavirus reported in a cycad (Alvarez-Quinto and colleagues, 2020). Otherwise, the species faces the general risks of the genus in cultivation: scale insects, and root rot in a compost that stays too wet, which Lavaud (2023) suggests preventing by keeping the compost fairly dry in winter.

Cold hardiness

No measured cold tolerance exists for Zamia fischeri. The amateur reports that circulate almost always concern plants of doubtful identity, often Zamia vazquezii.

Mediterranean and European experience

No in-ground trial of the true Zamia fischeri has been documented in France or elsewhere in Europe. On the Fous de palmiers forum, messages under this name mostly concern plants later recognised as Zamia vazquezii, and they allow no conclusion about this species. The documented European cultivation is under glass, at Naples.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No dated cold record has been published. Trebrown gives the species a cold hardiness zone of 9b in its catalogue, without stating the basis of this commercial rating, and in view of the confusion between the two species it is not clear which plant the rating refers to; it should not be taken as a measured limit. In the UK, grow it in a pot and keep it frost-free in winter.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia fischeri has been published, but the risk is documented in the genus: pharmacological studies cited by The Gymnosperm Database found toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived, in Zamia. The ASPCA lists Zamia furfuracea as toxic to dogs, cats and horses (cycasin and BMAA, a neurotoxic amino acid; vomiting, bloody diarrhoea, liver damage), the seeds being 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 specific to Zamia fischeri has been documented. Food uses known for other Zamia should not be attributed to it without a source.

Frequently asked questions

How can Zamia fischeri be told from Zamia vazquezii?

By the adult leaves: Zamia fischeri has fewer than six, under 30 cm long and drooping, with fewer than 12 pairs of lanceolate, pointed leaflets; Zamia vazquezii has more, longer, upright leaves with ovate, fern-like leaflets. Chromosome number (16 against 18) and provenance also separate them.

Why is it so rare in collections?

Because for decades almost every plant grown under this name was Zamia vazquezii. The true Zamia fischeri, from north-eastern Mexico, has rarely been introduced, and some sellers still confuse the two species.

Where does it grow?

In north-eastern Mexico, in the states of Hidalgo, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas, between 140 and 900 m.

Who was Fischer?

Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von Fischer (1782–1854), director of the botanical garden of St Petersburg, where the plant described by Miquel came from.

Is it endangered?

Yes. The IUCN rates it Endangered (2022), and it is protected in Mexico in the category “in danger of extinction”.

Can it be grown in a pot?

Yes, its small size suits a pot. A specialist nursery recommends a free-draining compost, a cool but frost-free winter and a warm summer; first make sure that the plant really is Zamia fischeri.

Is it poisonous?

It should be assumed so: no analysis concerns it, but the Zamia that have been studied contain serious toxins, especially in the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Van Houtte, L. (1845). Hortus Vanhoutteanus 1: 1–20 (Zamia fischeri: 20). [Original publication of Miquel’s description; not consulted.]
  • Stevenson, D.W. & Sabato, S. (1986). Typification of names in Zamia L. and Aulacophyllum Regel (Zamiaceae). Taxon 35: 134–144. [Neotype designation; cited after Stevenson et al. (1998) and The World List of Cycads.]
  • Stevenson, D.W., Sabato, S., Moretti, A. & De Luca, P. (1998). What is Zamia fischeri Miquel? Delpinoa n.s. 37–38 (1995–1996): 9–17. [Full text read; history of the name, criteria, chromosomes, description of Zamia vazquezii.]
  • Moretti, A., Caputo, P., Gaudio, L. & Stevenson, D.W. (1991). Intraspecific chromosome variation in Zamia (Zamiaceae, Cycadales). Caryologia 44: 1–10. [Cited after Stevenson et al. (1998).]
  • Caputo, P., Cozzolino, S., Gaudio, L., Moretti, A. & Stevenson, D.W. (1996). Karyology and phylogeny of some Mesoamerican species of Zamia (Zamiaceae). American Journal of Botany 83: 1513–1520. [Cited after Stevenson et al. (1998).]
  • Nicolalde-Morejón, F., Vovides, A.P. & Stevenson, D.W. (2009). Taxonomic revision of Zamia in Mega-Mexico. Brittonia 61(4): 301–335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12228-009-9077-9 [Cited by The World List of Cycads; not consulted.]
  • Nicolalde-Morejón, F., González-Astorga, J., Vergara-Silva, F., Stevenson, D.W., Rojas-Soto, O. & Medina-Villarreal, A. (2014). Biodiversidad de Zamiaceae en México. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 85 (suppl.): S114–S125. https://doi.org/10.7550/rmb.38114 [Text read: altitude, biogeographical regions, NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 category.]
  • 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 [Sample from Tamaulipas; Fischeri clade and its relationship to the Caribbean clade; full text consulted.]
  • 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. [Fischeri clade; cited after Lindstrom and colleagues (2024).]
  • Lei, J.-Y., Hinsinger, D.D. & Jiang, G.-F. (2018). Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of endangered cycads Zamia fischeri Miq. ex Lem. Mitochondrial DNA Part B 3(2): 1059–1061. https://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2018.1508387 [Abstract read.]
  • Alvarez-Quinto, R.A., Lockhart, B.E.L., Fetzer, J.L. & Olszewski, N.E. (2020). Genomic characterization of cycad leaf necrosis virus, the first badnavirus identified in a gymnosperm. Archives of Virology 165(7): 1671–1673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-020-04630-6 [Abstract read.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Zamia fischeri. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T42134A69837578. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T42134A69837578.en [Current assessment (EN); reference checked on Crossref, Red List page not consulted.]
  • Whitelock, L.M. (2002). The Cycads. Timber Press, Portland. [Source of the etymology according to The World List of Cycads; not consulted.]
  • Lavaud, S. (2023). Comment cultiver les Zamia en climat tempéré. Cycadales.eu. [Growing advice for groups of species; read 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.]