Zamia pygmaea

Zamia pygmaea is presented as the smallest cycad in the world: a plant with an underground stem, no more than about 25 cm tall, endemic to western Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud, where it grows in pine woods and open places on white sands. This species of the genus Zamia was described in 1815 by the English botanist John Sims from a plant grown in London, under the English name “Least Zamia”. It has received several other names, including Zamia kickxii, Zamia silicea and Zamia ottonis, which The World List of Cycads now treats as synonyms, although the last is defended as a separate species by the Flora de la República de Cuba and by a 2024 genetic study. The IUCN rates it Endangered (2022 assessment).

Key facts about Zamia pygmaea

  • Accepted name: Zamia pygmaea Sims (1815), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) and by GBIF; POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: Zamia kickxii Miq. (1842), Zamia ottonis Miq. (1844), Zamia pygmaea var. wrightii A.DC. (1868), Zamia silicea Britton (1916), Zamia chamberlainii J.Schust. (1932), Zamia pumila subsp. pygmaea (Sims) Eckenw. (1981), Palmifolium pygmaeum (Sims) Kuntze (1891); Zamia ottonis is treated as a separate species by the flora of Cuba (see Taxonomy)
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: “Least Zamia” in English (Sims, 1815); “yuquilla de sabana” in Cuba (Roig, 1963, quoted by the Flora de la República de Cuba; Species+)
  • Natural range: Cuba, Pinar del Río province and the Isla de la Juventud
  • IUCN status: Endangered (EN), criteria B1ab(ii,iii,iv,v)+2ab(ii,iii,iv,v), assessment published in 2022
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II (seeds exempt under annotation #4); Annex B in the European Union
  • Documented hardiness: no measurement for the species; a specialist nursery places its group among the Zamia that tolerate temperatures close to freezing (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, pine woods and open places on white quartz sands (Flora de la República de Cuba); in cultivation, a very mineral, free-draining compost, rather limy (group advice from Cycadales.eu)
  • Habit and adult size: underground stem; no more than about 25 cm tall according to recent sources, leaves “about a span” long in Sims; the flora of Cuba nevertheless gives leaves of about 80 cm (see How to recognise)
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, The Huntington, San Diego Botanic Garden and other American gardens; Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Melbourne) and Cairns Botanic Gardens; no British record
  • Toxicity: no data specific to the species; treat it as poisonous, like all cycads (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Zamia pygmaea

Its small size is the character most often cited: Gutiérrez-Ortega and Villarreal (2024) present it as the smallest cycad in the world, no more than 25 cm tall. John Sims’s original description (1815), made from a male plant, gives:

  • Leaves: pinnate, about a span long, on rounded petioles.
  • Leaflets: about ten pairs, so close together that they overlap slightly, not quite opposite, oval and oblique, glossy, attached to the rachis by a cartilaginous joint; the straighter upper margin is finely toothed over the third nearest the tip, the more curved lower margin up to half its length, the rest entire.
  • Rachis: with two grooves above, rounded beneath.
  • Male cone: oval, on a short, thick stalk, leaning to one side, with vaguely hexagonal scales bearing many globular white anthers. Sims did not see a female plant.

The Flora de la República de Cuba (González Géigel, 2003), based on Cuban plants, gives a fuller description, but with dimensions much larger than those of Sims and than the 25 cm often quoted, without explaining the difference:

  • Stem: underground, tuberous, 8 cm across.
  • Leaves: about 6, upright, about 80 cm long; young leaves covered in rusty-brown down that later disappears; petiole without prickles, almost cylindrical and flattened above, 20 to 80 cm.
  • Leaflets: alternate to almost opposite, 10 to 12 on each side of the rachis, narrowly ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 4 to 9 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide (sometimes 0.8 cm), stiff, blunt, with many small teeth along the margin.
  • Male cones: cylindrical, about 5 cm by 1 cm, on a stalk of 2 to 2.5 cm.
  • Female cones: 3 to 6 cm by 1.5 to 2 cm, with a short, pointed conical tip, on a stalk of 2 to 4 cm, covered in reddish-brown down.
  • Seeds: ovoid, about 1.5 cm by 1 cm, with reddish to deep pink flesh. Cones and seeds are recorded from October to August.

The same flora notes that in disturbed places or after fires, new leaves grow not upright but slightly arched, with fewer leaflets: these were the plants named Zamia silicea.

Hybrids

No hybrid of Zamia pygmaea, natural or raised in cultivation, has been documented. For the Zamia of the Caribbean and Florida as a whole, Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) recall that genetic studies have revealed complex gene exchanges between populations and even between islands, without citing a case specific to this species.

Possible confusion

Cuba has several Zamia with underground stems. The key in the Flora de la República de Cuba separates them as follows:

  • Zamia angustifolia, Zamia stricta and Zamia integrifolia: narrowly linear leaflets, less than 7 mm wide, entire except near the tip;
  • Zamia pumila: fewer than 10 leaflets on each side and larger cones (male cones 6 to 11 cm, female 8 to 14 cm);
  • the plant the flora calls Zamia amblyphyllidia (now included in Zamia erosa by The World List of Cycads): leaflets more than 2 cm wide;
  • Zamia ottonis, which the flora keeps as a species: lanceolate to spatula-shaped leaflets, scalloped mainly towards the tip, and cylindrical female cones, against narrowly ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate leaflets with many small teeth in Zamia pygmaea.

Simon Lavaud, of the French nursery Cycadales.eu, observes that Cuba is home to a great diversity of Zamia that nobody has yet managed to describe precisely, and shows Cuban plants of “erosa type”, “integrifolia type” and “pygmaea type” (Lavaud, 2023). Away from a known population, young plants can therefore be hard to identify. There is no risk of confusion, on the other hand, with the other cycad endemic to western Cuba, Microcycas calocoma, which forms a trunk.

Taxonomy

Zamia pygmaea is an accepted name according to The World List of Cycads, and GBIF gives it as accepted; POWO could not be consulted directly. The species was published by John Sims in 1815 in the Botanical Magazine (volume 42, plate 1741), under the English name “Least Zamia”. The holotype, kept at the Natural History Museum in London (BM), was taken by Salisbury from a plant grown by Loddiges; the Flora de la República de Cuba says it came from Cuba, whereas Sims wrote only that it was “imported, a native of the West Indies”.

The World List of Cycads and Species+ place in its synonymy several names based on variable plants:

  • Zamia kickxii Miq. (Monographia Cycadearum: 71, pl. 8, 1842), described from a plant grown at the Ghent botanic garden that came from Cuba according to the flora of Cuba, with Palmifolium kickxii and Zamia pygmaea var. kickxii;
  • Zamia ottonis Miq. (Linnaea 17: 740, 1844), whose type comes from San Antonio Fundador de Canímar, in Matanzas province, with Palmifolium ottonis and Zamia pygmaea var. ottonis;
  • Zamia pygmaea var. wrightii A.DC. (Prodromus 16(2): 543–544, 1868), based on a collection by Charles Wright in the “sabanas Chirigota” of Pinar del Río (1861–1864); Zamia chamberlainii J.Schust. (1932) is a homotypic synonym of it according to the flora of Cuba;
  • Zamia silicea Britton (Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 43: 462, 1916), from a collection made on 13 February 1916 near Los Indios, on the Isla de la Juventud, with Zamia media f. silicea;
  • Palmifolium pygmaeum (Sims) Kuntze (1891), from Otto Kuntze’s attempt to replace the generic name Zamia;
  • Zamia pumila subsp. pygmaea (Sims) Eckenw. (Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 61: 719, 1981).

In 1981 James Eckenwalder united all the Zamia of the West Indies in a single species, Zamia pumila, with two subspecies, including subspecies pygmaea, restricted to western Cuba; according to the flora of Cuba, Stevenson’s work (1987) showed that this reduction went too far.

The case of Zamia ottonis

The sources disagree on one point. The World List of Cycads places Zamia ottonis within Zamia pygmaea, but the Flora de la República de Cuba (González Géigel, 2003) treats it as a separate species, found in western, central and eastern Cuba, in dry scrub on serpentine. The phylogenetic study by Lindstrom and colleagues (2024), which analysed among others a plant from western Cuba, points the same way: Zamia ottonis appears as a valid species that diverged earlier, while Zamia kickxii is sister to Zamia pygmaea; the authors note that the original locality of these last two names is unknown, since they were described from cultivated plants, but conclude that there are at least two distinct species in Cuba. The three form, within the clade of the Caribbean and Florida, a small group of the smallest species in the genus, in which seed size follows plant size. This site follows The World List of Cycads, the current reference, while pointing out this divergence.

Etymology and history

The epithet comes from the Latin pygmaeus, “pygmy” or “dwarf”, an apparent allusion to the small size of the plant (Haynes, 2022, followed by The World List of Cycads).

The plant described by Sims had been supplied by the Loddiges nursery at Hackney (London), where it flowered at the beginning of May. The same text reports the Loddiges’ advice for the whole family: a light, sandy soil that lets water drain freely, the “heads” of the plants in a warm, humid atmosphere, and no attempt to keep the glasshouse at a fixed temperature, their houses often swinging in a single day between 120 and 60 °F (about 49 and 16 °C), to the evident benefit of the plants. They added that of forty-two “palms”, cycads included, grown by them, only nine could be propagated by division, the others having to be sown as soon as the seed was gathered (Sims, 1815).

Common names

Sims called it “Least Zamia” in English, the only English name attested for the species. In Cuba, the Flora de la República de Cuba gives it the name “yuquilla de sabana”, after Roig (1963), which Species+ repeats. For the genus in general, the flora cites in Cuba “guáyara”, “yuca cimarrona” and “yuquilla” (León, 1946; Roig, 1963). The name “yuquilla de ratón” is used there for other species, including Zamia ottonis.

In the wild

Zamia pygmaea is endemic to Cuba: The World List of Cycads limits its range to the west of the island and to the Isla de la Juventud (formerly the Isle of Pines), and the Flora de la República de Cuba specifies Pinar del Río province and the Isla de la Juventud. According to the flora, it grows in pine woods and open places on white quartz sands.

A fact sheet compiled by the Botanical Survey of India describes open, dry habitats ranging from serpentine to limestone outcrops and almost pure sand, and counts the species, with Zamia angustifolia, among the most drought-adapted in the genus. This picture fits the species in the broad sense: serpentine is the habitat the flora of Cuba attributes to Zamia ottonis. Pollinators and population sizes have not been documented for the species; for the genus, the flora of Cuba cites pollination by small beetles of the genera Rhopalotria and Pharaxonotha.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia pygmaea is rated Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List under criteria B1ab(ii,iii,iv,v)+2ab(ii,iii,iv,v), in an assessment by J.D. Bösenberg published in 2022 (The World List of Cycads; category confirmed by GBIF; the Red List page could not be consulted). These criteria correspond to a small extent of occurrence and area of occupancy, with a continuing decline in area of occupancy, habitat quality, number of locations and number of mature plants. The Botanical Survey of India fact sheet still gives “critically endangered”, after an earlier assessment.

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, which is in Appendix I, Zamia pygmaea falls under CITES Appendix II, where the genus has been listed since 4 February 1977. The listing carries annotation #4: seeds, pollen, seedlings and tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers, and cut flowers of artificially propagated plants, are not covered by CITES. International trade in the plants themselves, however, 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. Species+ names the species, gives its synonyms and confirms this status (checked on 13 October 2026).

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

Growing Zamia pygmaea

No botanic garden has published growing advice specific to the species. Simon Lavaud, of the specialist nursery Cycadales.eu in Montpellier, places Zamia pygmaea among the Zamia of Florida and the Caribbean, which he considers easy to grow: these species tolerate temperatures close to freezing and Mediterranean-type winters, almost all come from limestone habitats and stand drought well (Lavaud, 2023). For this group he advises:

  • a free-draining compost, slightly to strongly limy (some lime seems essential to him), about 80 % mineral;
  • any type of water;
  • in winter, 1 to 10 °C (34 to 50 °F) with daytime rises to 15 to 20 °C (59 to 68 °F), and fairly good tolerance of long cool spells if the compost stays on the dry side without drying out;
  • 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, for at least four to six months a year.

These are recommendations from experience for a group of species, not measurements made on Zamia pygmaea. In the wild, the flora of Cuba records it on quartz sands, which are not limy: the need for lime, true of the group, has not been shown for this species.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

No outdoor result has been published outside Cuba. In frost-free subtropical climates, such as southern Florida, a very free-draining, sunny or lightly shaded spot would match its habitat of open sandy pine woods; this is a deduction from the habitat, not a tested result.

Container cultivation

Its small size makes it one of the easiest cycads to keep in a pot. Use a very mineral, free-draining compost, keep it on the dry side in cool weather, give it summer warmth, and keep it frost-free in winter, as advised for its group.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: present in several American gardens and in two Australian gardens, absent from British records.

  • United States: listed in the online Garden Explorer of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Miami) and in BGCI; BGCI also records it at The Huntington (San Marino) and San Diego Botanic Garden (California), the arboretum of California State University, Fullerton, the Lincoln Park Conservatory (Chicago), the Matthaei Botanical Gardens (Ann Arbor) and the botanical garden of the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Montgomery Botanical Center has no accession under this name or its synonyms in its online catalogue (queried on 25 October 2026).
  • Australia: Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Melbourne) and Cairns Botanic Gardens (Queensland), according to BGCI; Cairns also declares plants under the names Zamia pygmaea var. kickxii and var. ottonis.
  • United Kingdom: no record in BGCI or in the online catalogues of British gardens.

A BGCI declaration shows that a garden held the plant at some point, not that it is alive there today. In Europe, BGCI records it at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin (Dublin), in Germany (Jena, Frankfurt Palmengarten), the Czech Republic (Prague, Teplice) and Sweden (Bergius Botanic Garden); several gardens also declare a form labelled “Hidnii”. A 2019 paper on the glasshouses of the botanic garden of Naples lists Zamia pygmaea among the Zamia grown there (Sibilio, 2019).

Propagation

Like all Zamia, the species has male and female plants and is propagated from seed; a plant of each sex is needed to obtain seed in cultivation. No germination data specific to the species have been published. As early as 1815, the Loddiges noted that most cycads had to be sown as soon as the seed was gathered. Seeds are exempt from CITES permits; make sure they come from cultivated plants.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species has been documented. For its whole group, Cycadales.eu insists on a very mineral compost, since a compost that stays wet for weeks in winter encourages rot (Lavaud, 2023). Cultivated Zamia can also carry scale insects.

Cold hardiness

There is no measurement of the cold tolerance of Zamia pygmaea. The nursery Cycadales.eu credits the Caribbean Zamia with tolerance of temperatures close to freezing, and of frost only for Zamia integrifolia (Lavaud, 2023): no threshold is given for Zamia pygmaea.

Mediterranean and European experience

No in-ground result has been published in France or Italy, and no dated frost episode concerns the species; on the French forum Fous de palmiers, it appears only in seed exchanges. For comparison only, and without being transferable to this species: at the Jardin zoologique tropical in La Londe-les-Maures (Var, on the French Riviera), a Zamia integrifolia, a species of the same Caribbean group, survived −7 °C (19.4 °F) in February 2012 with damage to its foliage. In the absence of data on Zamia pygmaea, readers in Mediterranean-type climates such as California or southern Australia should grow it in a pot, sheltered from frost in winter.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record has been published for the species, on forums or by botanic gardens. Trebrown, a British nursery, gives it USDA zone 9b, a commercial rating, not a measured result. The Botanical Survey of India fact sheet mentions a plant grown at the NBRI botanic garden in Lucknow, India, without climatic data. In the UK it is a plant for a frost-free glasshouse or a bright windowsill.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia pygmaea has been published. The risk is, however, well documented in cycads: Zamia contain toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived, harmful to the liver and nervous system, and cycads also contain a neurotoxic amino acid, BMAA. Within the genus, the ASPCA lists Zamia furfuracea as toxic to dogs, cats and horses. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, treat the plant as poisonous: keep seeds and leaves out of reach of children and animals, and wear gloves to clean seeds. If any part is swallowed, contact a poison centre, a doctor or a vet straight away.

Traditional uses

According to the Flora de la República de Cuba, the species is used in Cuba mainly as a rat poison (Roig, 1963), although its effect has not been verified. For the genus, the same flora reports that in central and eastern Cuba starch was extracted from the underground stem to feed young children; no source links this use to Zamia pygmaea, and such preparations, dangerous without detoxification, must never be attempted.

Frequently asked questions

Is Zamia pygmaea really the smallest cycad in the world?

Yes, that is how it is presented, at no more than 25 cm tall, with leaves about a span long in Sims’s description. The flora of Cuba, however, gives much longer leaves (about 80 cm), without explaining the difference. With Zamia kickxii and Zamia ottonis, it forms the small Cuban group of the smallest species in the genus.

Where does it grow?

Only in Cuba, in Pinar del Río province and on the Isla de la Juventud, in pine woods and open places on white quartz sands.

Is Zamia kickxii the same plant?

For The World List of Cycads and Species+, yes: it is a synonym. The 2024 genetic study finds it close to Zamia pygmaea, but separates Zamia ottonis, which the flora of Cuba also keeps as a species.

Is it endangered?

Yes. The IUCN rates it Endangered (2022), for a small and declining range. It falls under CITES Appendix II and Annex B in the European Union.

Is it hardy?

Nobody knows. No measurement exists; a specialist nursery places its group among the Zamia that tolerate temperatures close to freezing. To be safe, grow it in a pot, protected from frost.

Does it need a limy compost?

Not necessarily. Cycadales.eu advises a very mineral, slightly limy compost for the whole group of Caribbean Zamia, but the flora of Cuba places this species on quartz sands. Drainage matters more.

Is it poisonous?

It must be assumed so. No analysis concerns the species, but the cycads studied contain serious toxins, especially in the seeds; in Cuba the plant is even used as a rat poison.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Sims, J. (1815). Zamia pygmaea. Least Zamia. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 42: t. 1741. [Original description; scanned copy read.]
  • González Géigel, L. (2003). Zamiaceae. In: Greuter, W. & Rankin Rodríguez, R. (eds), Flora de la República de Cuba, series A, fascicle 8(4). Online edition, Berlin Botanic Garden, 2024. https://doi.org/10.3372/frc.8.4 [National flora; 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 [Peer-reviewed article; full text consulted on PubMed Central.]
  • Gutiérrez-Ortega, J.S. & Villarreal A., J.C. (2024). A possible case of adaptive radiation in cycads. Annals of Botany 134(5): i–ii. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcae110 [Commentary on Lindstrom et al. (2024); read directly.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Zamia pygmaea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T213253786A69843909. [Current assessment (EN); reference given by The World List of Cycads, category confirmed by GBIF; the Red List page could not be consulted.]
  • Lavaud, S. (2023). Comment cultiver les Zamia en climat tempéré. Cycadales.eu. [Growing advice for groups of species; read directly.]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.550.1.1 [Etymology followed by The World List of Cycads; not consulted directly.]
  • Calonje, M., Stevenson, D.W. & Osborne, R. (2026). The World List of Cycads, version 2026.08.15. Montgomery Botanical Center, Coral Gables. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21958524 [Reference checklist; consulted directly.]