Zamia lacandona

Zamia lacandona is a cycad endemic to Chiapas, in southern Mexico, where it lives in the lowland rainforest of the Selva Lacandona. This species of the genus Zamia has no visible trunk: its stem stays underground and usually carries a single large, arching leaf that emerges reddish brown. Described in 1998 from populations first placed under Zamia splendens, it is rated Endangered by the IUCN, yet it has a rare talent among cycads: it comes back on cleared and burnt land, even in abandoned fields and along roadsides.

Key facts about Zamia lacandona

  • Accepted name: Zamia lacandona Schutzman & Vovides (1998), 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; before 1998 the populations of the Selva Lacandona were included in Zamia splendens
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no name attested, in English or in Spanish
  • Natural range: Mexico, eastern Chiapas (Selva Lacandona and neighbouring areas), between 80 and 200 m; also reported from the far north-west of Guatemala by a field naturalist
  • IUCN status: Endangered (EN A2cd), 2022 assessment; listed as endangered (P) under the Mexican standard NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II (whole genus, since 1977; seeds exempt under annotation #4); Annex B in the European Union
  • Documented hardiness: no data (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, lowland evergreen rainforest, but also regrowth, abandoned maize fields and roadsides burnt every year; no published growing advice for the species
  • Habit and adult size: underground stem 17 to 40 cm long and 4.5 to 8 cm across; plant 15 to 60 cm tall; usually a single leaf 30 to 100 cm long with 7 to 12 pairs of leaflets
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Montgomery Botanical Center (four accession numbers), Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, the Huntington and Lotusland (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 lacandona

In short, it is a Zamia with an underground stem that most often bears just one leaf, large and arching, whose leaflets are finely toothed in their upper half; the male cones lean over, while the female cone stays upright. The original description by Bart Schutzman and Andrew Vovides (1998) gives these characters:

  • Habit: a dioecious plant 15 to 60 cm tall.
  • Stem: underground, 17 to 40 cm long and 4.5 to 8 cm in diameter; relative to the size of the leaf, the smallest stem among the Mesoamerican Zamia the authors examined.
  • Leaves: usually one, sometimes two depending on the condition of the plant and its surroundings, arching, slightly hairy when young, 30 to 100 cm long and 34 to 80 cm wide; new leaves reddish brown to purplish brown, dark green when mature.
  • Petiole: half-round, dark greenish brown with brown down, 20 to 70 cm long and 1 to 2 cm thick, prickly over about three quarters of its length (prickles 0.8 to 4 mm); its massive base covers almost the whole top of the stem.
  • Leaflets: 7 to 12 pairs, linear-lanceolate to slightly oblanceolate, the lower ones somewhat sickle-shaped, 13 to 42 cm long and 1.5 to 5 cm wide, with a slightly rolled margin finely toothed in the upper half (teeth 1 to 1.25 mm); the point where they join the rachis is dark brown.
  • Male cones: leaning (decumbent), cylindrical to conical, dark beige to light brown, 6.5 to 7.4 cm long and 1.8 to 2.5 cm across, on a stalk 10 to 12 cm long.
  • Female cone: upright, barrel-shaped and cylindrical with a short point, chocolate brown with raised, paler beige hexagonal facets, 12 to 14 cm long and 6 to 7 cm across, on a stalk 10 to 11 cm long.
  • Seeds: angular, bright red when ripe, 1.6 to 1.8 cm long and 1.4 to 1.6 cm wide.

The authors add that the single large, sturdy leaf and the small stem identify the species in the wild, but that these characters can change in cultivation; growers should then also look at the fine teeth of the leaflets and at the posture of the cones. The naturalist Jay Vannini, who knows the plant in the field, describes a usually solitary leaf of about 1 m (40 in), occasionally reaching 1.85 m (6 ft), well beyond the range given in the original description (Vannini, 2019).

Hybrids

No hybrid, natural or raised in cultivation, is documented. When they described Zamia grijalvensis in 2012, Pérez-Farrera and colleagues considered for that species a hybrid origin involving Zamia loddigesii or a species of the group to which Zamia lacandona belongs; the hypothesis, based on a few chromosome counts, does not concern Zamia lacandona directly.

Possible confusion

The two species most likely to be mixed up with Zamia lacandona are Zamia splendens, under which its populations were once filed, and Zamia grijalvensis, whose foliage is almost identical.

In 1998 Schutzman and Vovides separated Zamia lacandona from Zamia splendens by a usually single, arching leaf with sickle-shaped leaflets, reddish brown rather than pink new leaves, fine rather than coarse leaflet teeth, an upright female cone on a short stalk (nodding and long-stalked in Zamia splendens), leaning rather than hanging male cones, and different chromosome numbers. They also compared it with the other species of the group: Zamia standleyi, with arching leaves and leaflets folded lengthwise; Zamia cremnophila, with hanging leaves and all its cones upright; and Zamia purpurea, with dark purple new leaves and prominent veins.

The comparison published with Zamia grijalvensis (Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2012) relies mainly on the cones, the stem and the habitat:

  • Zamia lacandona: female cone dark brown with paler beige facets, male cone leaning, 7 to 12 pairs of leaflets, conical stem, leaflet joints dark brown, evergreen rainforest of the Selva Lacandona;
  • Zamia grijalvensis: female cone brown to orange-brown, male and female cones both upright, 14 to 29 pairs of leaflets, stem consistently constricted in the middle, leaflet joints pale brown, seasonally dry deciduous forest of the Central Depression of Chiapas.

In 2011 Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues also placed Zamia lacandona in the “Zamia katzeriana complex”, with Zamia katzeriana, Zamia cremnophila and Zamia purpurea: species of south-eastern Mexico (Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco and Chiapas) with underground stems and broad (3 to 11 cm), leathery leaflets that are easy to confuse without cones.

Taxonomy

Zamia lacandona is an accepted name according to The World List of Cycads and GBIF; POWO could not be consulted directly. The species was described in 1998 by Bart Schutzman, of the University of Florida, and Andrew P. Vovides, of the Instituto de Ecología in Xalapa, in the journal Novon (volume 8, issue 4, pages 441 to 446) under the title “A new Zamia (Zamiaceae, Cycadales) from eastern Chiapas, Mexico”. IPNI credits the name to Schutzman alone, whereas The World List of Cycads and the paper itself give both authors. The type is the collection B. Schutzman 517, a male plant gathered in July 1984 in the Selva Lacandona; the holotype is kept in the herbarium of the University of Florida (FLAS), with an isotype in Xalapa (XAL).

The history of the name explains the confusion with Zamia splendens. When Schutzman described that species in 1984, he found the Lacandon plants more robust and perhaps distinct, but cautiously kept them within it. Three findings changed the picture: plants collected in 1984 produced their first cones in cultivation in 1993 and showed differences in shape and posture; Zamia splendens almost identical to the type were found the same year in neighbouring Tabasco, which made a single, very variable species unlikely; and the Lacandon plants turned out to have unusual chromosomes. The authors counted 2n = 16, 17 and 18 in six plants from three localities, whereas all the other species of the group have 2n = 16; they attribute this to centric fissions, as in Zamia paucijuga and Zamia loddigesii.

Relationships. For its authors, the new species brought the Zamia splendens group to five (Zamia splendens, Zamia cremnophila, Zamia purpurea, Zamia standleyi and Zamia lacandona). The phylogeny of Calonje and colleagues (2019), as summarised by Lindstrom and colleagues (2024), placed it in a “purpurea” clade with Zamia purpurea, Zamia splendens, Zamia katzeriana, Zamia cremnophila and Zamia grijalvensis. The transcriptome study of Lindstrom and colleagues, which sampled a plant from Chiapas, refines this picture: Zamia purpurea proves more distinct than expected, closer to Zamia meermanii of Belize, and Zamia katzeriana appears as the sister species of Zamia splendens; Zamia lacandona stays among the Mega-Mexican species of their subclade III-A, all with underground stems.

Etymology and history

The epithet lacandona refers to the Selva Lacandona, the rainforest of eastern Chiapas, itself named after the Lacandon people, of Maya descent, who live there (Schutzman and Vovides, 1998; Haynes, 2022, as given by The World List of Cycads).

The type was collected in July 1984 on an expedition by Bart Schutzman; a second expedition, in 1993, with Andrew Vovides, Terrence Walters and Charles Hubbuch of the Fairchild Tropical Garden, gathered further specimens near Maya ruins in the Selva Lacandona. Fourteen years separated the collection of the type from the publication of the species. In 2008 the South African journal Encephalartos devoted an article to it (“Focus on Zamia lacandona”, by Osborne, Nicolalde-Morejón and Vovides), listed by The World List of Cycads.

Common names

No common name is attested for this species, in English, in Spanish or in a Maya language.

In the wild

Zamia lacandona is endemic to Chiapas according to The World List of Cycads. The original description places it in the Selva Lacandona, in the east of the state, and in neighbouring areas; the authors deliberately kept the localities vague for fear of collectors. Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues (2014) give an elevation range of 80 to 200 m, in the Gulf of Mexico biogeographical province. Jay Vannini adds a reliable report from tropical moist forest in the far north-west of Guatemala, where the species was expected since populations are known just across the border (Vannini, 2019); The World List of Cycads does not yet record Guatemala.

In undisturbed areas the plant grows in evergreen tropical forest (the “bosque tropical perennifolio” of Rzedowski, the “selva alta perennifolia” of Miranda). Schutzman and Vovides also found it in regrowth such as abandoned maize fields, and in constantly disturbed places such as roadsides burnt every year to clear brush and tall grass, where its large reddish brown new leaves make it easy to spot. In their view the underground stem shields it from slash-and-burn farming, whereas species with an above-ground trunk, such as Zamia inermis or Zamia soconuscensis, disappear from cultivated plots because they cannot resprout. Vannini (2019) also notes that it persists in disturbed habitats. Like other cycads, it forms coralloid roots that house nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia lacandona is rated Endangered (EN) by the IUCN under criterion A2cd, in the assessment by J.D. Bösenberg published in 2022 (category given by The World List of Cycads and by GBIF; the Red List itself could not be consulted). Criterion A reflects a reduction in population size. The authors of 1998 considered that an underground-stemmed species like this one is more at risk from commercial collecting than from slash-and-burn farming. In Mexico it is listed as endangered (P) under the standard NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2014).

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, which is in Appendix I, Zamia lacandona is covered by the listing of the genus in CITES Appendix II, in force since 4 February 1977. Annotation #4 exempts in particular seeds, pollen, and seedlings or tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers; international trade in the plants themselves requires an export permit. 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 page for the species, which is covered by the entry for the genus (checked on 3 October 2026; Annex B listing checked in the text of the regulation on 18 October 2026).

This general information does not replace the official texts: check the regulations in force before buying or exchanging plants or seeds, ask the seller for proof of origin and prefer plants raised from cultivated seed.

Growing Zamia lacandona

No growing advice specific to Zamia lacandona has been published, and the species remains rare outside specialist collections. Jay Vannini notes that it is in cultivation but not widely grown, because of its sparse crown (Vannini, 2019). The original description gives only two clues: plants collected in 1984 first produced cones in cultivation in 1993, and the shape of the leaf and stem can change in cultivation.

Simon Lavaud, of the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu, includes Zamia lacandona among the Zamia of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, a group he rates of medium difficulty. For this group he recommends, 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 not parched, and in summer 15 to 20 °C (59 to 68 °F) at night and 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F) by day for at least four to six months (Lavaud, 2023). This is advice for the whole group; Zamia lacandona, a plant of lowland rainforest rather than of a climate with a marked dry season, has not been tested against these values.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Outdoor cultivation is only conceivable in a frost-free tropical or near-tropical climate. Its persistence on roadsides and in abandoned fields in the wild suggests that it tolerates more open conditions than the forest floor, but no garden trial has been published. The gardens that declare it are in southern Florida and coastal southern California; none says whether its plants grow outside.

Container cultivation

In temperate climates it is a plant for a heated glasshouse or a bright, warm room. Its small stem and usually single leaf make it manageable in a pot; a free-draining compost that never stays cold and waterlogged is the main precaution for any Zamia.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: held by four American gardens; no British or Australian record.

  • United States: Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists four accession numbers under Zamia lacandona in its online catalogue (93932, 93939, 20140690 and 20140692), the last two from 2014. BGCI also records it at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Sarasota, Florida), the Huntington (San Marino, California) and Ganna Walska Lotusland (Santa Barbara, California) (queried on 25 October 2026).
  • United Kingdom: no record in BGCI or in the online catalogues of British gardens.
  • Australia: no record in BGCI.

In Mexico, the Francisco Javier Clavijero Botanic Garden in Xalapa also declares it to BGCI. A BGCI declaration shows that a garden held the plant at some point, not that it is alive there today, and the sources do not say whether the plants are outdoors or under glass.

Propagation

No data specific to the species have been published. Like all Zamia, it has separate male and female plants, so a plant of each sex and, in cultivation, hand pollination are needed. Each scale of the female cone carries two ovules; the seeds, bright red when ripe, are cleaned of their flesh while wearing gloves and sown fresh. Germination is slow in cycads. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4, but buyers should make sure they come from cultivated plants.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species has been documented. In cultivation, Zamia are chiefly at risk from stem rot in cold, waterlogged compost and from scale insects. Among the latter, Aulacaspis yasumatsui, the Asian cycad scale, counts the genus Zamia among its host plants according to the EPPO Global Database, following Marler, Lindström and Watson (2021); no attack has been reported on Zamia lacandona itself.

Cold hardiness

No data exist on the cold tolerance of Zamia lacandona. It lives in the lowland rainforest of Chiapas, between 80 and 200 m: its ability to survive fire and clearing says nothing about its tolerance of frost, and no source gives a minimum temperature. The British nursery Trebrown places it in USDA zone 10b, a commercial classification that is not based on a published trial.

Mediterranean and European experience

No cultivation in the ground has been reported in France or elsewhere in Europe, and no dated frost episode concerns the species. For readers in Mediterranean-type climates such as California or southern Australia, it remains a plant for heated glass or for the most sheltered frost-free gardens.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record exists. The American gardens that declare it are in southern Florida and coastal southern California, without any statement that their plants are outdoors. In the UK it needs a heated glasshouse.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia lacandona has been published. The risk is, however, documented in the genus and in other cycads: pharmacological studies cited by The Gymnosperm Database have found in Zamia toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived, and the ASPCA cites cycasin and BMAA, a neurotoxic amino acid, for Zamia furfuracea, 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 is documented for this species, although it grows in a region long inhabited by the Lacandon people.

Frequently asked questions

Is Zamia lacandona a palm?

No. Despite its looks, it is a cycad (family Zamiaceae), a gymnosperm that reproduces by cones and is not closely related to palms.

Where does it grow?

Only in southern Mexico and, according to one field report, just across the border in north-western Guatemala: in the Selva Lacandona of eastern Chiapas and neighbouring areas, at about 80 to 200 m, in rainforest but also in abandoned fields and along roadsides.

Where does the name come from?

From the Selva Lacandona, the forest of eastern Chiapas, which is itself named after the Lacandon people, of Maya descent.

How can it be told from Zamia grijalvensis?

Mainly by the cones and the stem. In Zamia lacandona the female cone is dark brown with beige facets, the male cone leans over and the stem is conical; in Zamia grijalvensis both cones are upright, the female cone is brown to orange-brown and the stem is constricted in the middle. Zamia grijalvensis also has more pairs of leaflets and grows in dry forest.

What is the difference from Zamia splendens?

In Zamia lacandona the leaf is usually single and arching, the new leaves are reddish brown rather than pink, the female cone stands upright on a short stalk and the chromosome number varies (2n = 16, 17 or 18); Zamia splendens has nodding female cones and 2n = 16.

Is it endangered?

Yes. The IUCN rates it Endangered (2022 assessment) and Mexico protects it as an endangered species. It does, however, resprout on cleared and burnt land, and the botanists who described it feared commercial collecting most.

Is it hardy?

Nobody knows: no cold data exist. It comes from lowland tropical forest; outside the tropics, grow it frost-free, in a heated glasshouse or indoors.

Is it poisonous?

It must be assumed so, like all cycads: no data specific to the species exist, but the cycads studied contain serious toxins, mainly in the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Schutzman, B. & Vovides, A.P. (1998). A new Zamia (Zamiaceae, Cycadales) from eastern Chiapas, Mexico. Novon 8(4): 441–446. https://doi.org/10.2307/3391871 [Original description; full text read on the BioStor copy at Internet Archive.]
  • Pérez-Farrera, M.A., Vovides, A.P., Martínez-Camilo, R., Martínez-Meléndez, N., Gómez-Domínguez, H. & Galicia-Castellanos, S. (2012). Zamia grijalvensis sp. nov. (Zamiaceae, Cycadales) from Chiapas, Mexico with notes on hybridization and karyology. Nordic Journal of Botany 30(5): 565–570. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-1051.2012.01453.x [Comparison with Zamia lacandona (cones, stem, leaflet joints, habitat); full text read.]
  • Nicolalde-Morejón, F., González-Astorga, J., Vergara-Silva, F. & Vovides, A.P. (2011). Perspectivas sistemáticas de Zamia (Zamiaceae) en Megaméxico: de la taxonomía alfa a los códigos de barras genéticos. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 82(2): 341–355. https://doi.org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2011.2.487 [Full text read.]
  • 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 suppl. 85: S114–S125. https://doi.org/10.7550/rmb.38114 [Full text read.]
  • 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 read 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 [“purpurea” clade cited after Lindstrom et al. 2024; not consulted directly.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Zamia lacandona. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T42135A69837805. [Current assessment (EN A2cd); reference given by The World List of Cycads; Red List page not consulted.]
  • Osborne, R., Nicolalde-Morejón, F. & Vovides, A.P. (2008). Focus on Zamia lacandona. Encephalartos 94: 11–14. [Specialist society journal; reference given by The World List of Cycads.]
  • 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 etymology given by The World List of Cycads; not consulted directly.]
  • Marler, T.E., Lindström, A.J. & Watson, G.W. (2021). Aulacaspis yasumatsui delivers a blow to international cycad horticulture. Horticulturae 7(6): 147. https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7060147 [Review of the scale insect; host plants cited after EPPO.]
  • 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.]