Zamia sandovalii

Zamia sandovalii is a cycad of northern Honduras, known only from the valley of the río Cangrejal, south-east of La Ceiba in the department of Atlántida, where it grows in lowland tropical moist forest between about 200 and 330 m. Described by the Honduran botanist Cyril Hardy Nelson Sutherland, this species of the genus Zamia combines a large underground stem with a few big leaves more than 2 m long, carrying many sickle-shaped leaflets. Like the other Zamia of Honduras, it is called “camotillo”, a name linked in the country to a reputation for being poisonous. The IUCN rates it Endangered.

Key facts about Zamia sandovalii

  • Accepted name: Zamia sandovalii C.Nelson, accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), which dates the name to 2007, by GBIF and by the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, on which POWO is based; POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: none; the misspelling “sandovallii” appears in some publications
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no English name; “camotillo” and “yuca de ratón” (Spanish, Honduras)
  • Natural range: Honduras, department of Atlántida (valley of the río Cangrejal, south-east of La Ceiba), from 200 to 326 m according to the collections
  • IUCN status: Endangered (EN), criteria A3cd; B1ab(i,ii,iii,iv,v)+2ab(i,ii,iii,iv,v), 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 data (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, lowland tropical moist forest, where it is also described as a cliff-dweller; no published growing advice specific to the species
  • Habit and adult size: underground stem about 16 cm by 10 cm; one to three leaves about 2.1 m long and 55 cm wide
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Montgomery Botanical Center, The Huntington and the University of Hawaii at Hilo (US); Royal Botanic Garden Sydney (Australia); no British record
  • Toxicity: no data specific to the species; the “camotillos” of Honduras have a reputation for being highly poisonous (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Zamia sandovalii

Zamia sandovalii is recognised by its few but very large leaves, by a petiole that is almost smooth, with only tiny scattered prickles, and by its many stalkless, slightly leathery, sickle-shaped leaflets, of which only the upper quarter carries small blunt teeth. The original description gives (Nelson Sutherland, 2005):

  • Stem: an underground tuber about 15.7 cm by 10.1 cm, marked with rings of superimposed grooves; triangular cataphylls.
  • Leaves: one to three, triangular when young, about 2.1 m long and 55 cm wide; petiole cylindrical, hairless, with very short scattered spines, widened at the base (5 cm by 3 cm); rachis hairless and spineless.
  • Leaflets: up to 68 pairs, 16 to 31 cm long and 2 to 3 cm wide, hairless, slightly leathery, without a stalk, jointed to the rachis, curved like a sickle and drawn out to a point; the upper quarter of the margin carries small blunt teeth 0.2 to 1.1 mm long; up to 33 veins.
  • Male cones: two, cylindrical, reddish brown, about 11.2 cm long and 2.6 cm wide, with a pointed tip, on a curved, downy peduncle about 16.7 cm long.
  • Female cone: a single one, cylindrical, about 12 cm by 4.5 cm, ending in a point 12 mm long, on a very short, densely downy peduncle (1.5 cm); the outer faces of the scales are hexagonal, 2 to 2.5 cm by 1.8 to 2 cm, in 8 or 9 vertical rows.
  • Seeds: two per scale, angular, described as white and changing colour as they dry, with white endosperm; the photograph captions speak of “white ovules”, so the colour of ripe seeds is not documented.

These measurements come from a small number of plants: the variation of the species has not been studied. A photograph published by Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) shows a plant with a decumbent leaf, lying along the ground.

Hybrids

No hybrid is known, either in the wild or in cultivation.

Possible confusion

Northern Honduras is home to four Zamia, all endemic to the country (Rivera García, 2016). Three of them, Zamia sandovalii, Zamia oreillyi and Zamia standleyi, have an underground stem and smooth, slightly leathery leaflets with finely toothed margins; according to Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, they are not difficult to tell apart (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2011). The published differences are:

  • Zamia oreillyi, described in the same article and also from Atlántida: leaves only about 78 cm long, linear-lanceolate leaflets 16 cm by 1 cm with no more than 20 veins, toothed along the whole upper half; a tiny male cone (2.9 cm) on a very long peduncle (Nelson Sutherland, 2005);
  • Zamia standleyi, more widespread, in the valleys of northern Honduras and in Izabal, Guatemala: also with an underground stem; the characters that separate it precisely from Zamia sandovalii have not been set out in print;
  • Zamia onan-reyesii, of the Merendón mountains (Cortés): a shrubby plant whose aerial stem reaches 2 m (Rivera García, 2016).

Taxonomy

Zamia sandovalii is accepted by The World List of Cycads, by GBIF and by the World Checklist of Vascular Plants of Kew; POWO could not be consulted directly. The species has no synonym. It was described by Cyril Hardy Nelson Sutherland, of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, in an article of the journal Ceiba that also introduces Zamia oreillyi: “two new plants of the genus Zamia in Honduras”.

A publication with several dates

The date and pagination of this article vary between sources. The version on the journal’s website reads “Ceiba, 2005, volume 46(1-2): 55–58”, the form followed by Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues (2011) and by Rivera García (2016). The copy distributed by The Cycad Society reads “Ceiba, 2006, volume 46(1): 41–44”, for the July to December 2006 issue. The World List of Cycads cites “Ceiba 46(1): 41–42” and dates the name to 2007, while its list of references gives 2006; the World Checklist of Vascular Plants gives “Ceiba 46: 55 (2005 publ. 2007)”. Since the type was collected on 24 January 2006, the issue dated 2005 cannot have appeared before that date; it is the actual date of issue that counts in nomenclature, and this page follows The World List of Cycads. The spelling “Zamia sandovallii”, with a double l, found in some publications, including the figure caption of the 2024 study, is an error.

Place in the genus

The transcriptome-based phylogeny of Lindstrom and colleagues (2024), which sampled a plant from Atlántida, places Zamia sandovalii in clade III, the main group of the Zamia of Mega-Mexico, within subclade III-B, the species of Honduras and of neighbouring eastern Guatemala and western Belize. The position depends on the method: species trees support subclade III-B as a group of eight species, whereas trees built by concatenation do not, and instead group three of its species, Zamia oreillyi, Zamia standleyi and Zamia sandovalii, with Zamia purpurea of Mexico, in a small, well-supported clade. The authors describe the Honduran subclade as morphologically and ecologically very diverse, with species of wet cloud forest, of drier deciduous forest, and lithophytes with drooping leaves.

Etymology and history

The epithet sandovalii honours German Sandoval, assistant at the TEFH herbarium of the biology department of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, who led the expedition during which several fertile plants were found (Nelson Sutherland, 2005; Haynes, 2022, followed by The World List of Cycads).

The first known collections date from 28 July 2003, on the río Cangrejal at 326 m, by a team that included Jody Haynes, Mark Bonta and German Sandoval (nos. 37 and 38, paratypes). The type was collected on 24 January 2006 on the bank of the río Cangrejal, on the Guaruma trail, 15 km from the community of Las Mangas, south-east of La Ceiba, in tropical moist forest at 200 m, by German Sandoval and seven companions (no. 1154); it is kept at the TEFH herbarium in Tegucigalpa, with two further paratypes collected the same day (Nelson Sutherland, 2005). The image gallery of The World List of Cycads holds photographs of the species taken in Atlántida in July 2003 by Jody Haynes and in November 2014 by Simon Lavaud, of the French nursery Cycadales.eu.

Common names

There is no English name. In Honduras the species is called “camotillo” (a diminutive of camote, sweet potato) and “yuca de ratón” (“rat’s cassava”); both names are given in the original description and are also used for Zamia oreillyi (Nelson Sutherland, 2005; Rivera García, 2016). “Camotillo” is the name for all the Zamia of Honduras, not a name specific to this species.

In the wild

Zamia sandovalii is endemic to Honduras. All known collections come from the valley of the río Cangrejal, south-east of La Ceiba, in the department of Atlántida, between 200 and 326 m, in tropical moist forest (Nelson Sutherland, 2005). The World List of Cycads limits its range to Atlántida. Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) list it, with Zamia cremnophila, Zamia meermanii and Zamia magnifica, among the specialist lithophytes of the genus that grow on steep cliff faces.

Northern Honduras forms, with Alta Verapaz and Izabal in Guatemala, one of the two centres of diversity of the Zamia of Mega-Mexico: seven species live there, under a hot, wet climate with a mean annual temperature of about 25 °C (77 °F) and 3,000 to 4,000 mm of rain a year, in evergreen tropical forest (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2011). The pollinators, phenology and demography of the species are not documented; in 2016 the state of the populations of the Honduran Zamia was still unknown (Rivera García, 2016).

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia sandovalii is rated Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List under criteria A3cd and B1ab(i,ii,iii,iv,v)+2ab(i,ii,iii,iv,v): the first refers to a projected population decline of at least 50 %, linked to habitat loss and collecting, the second to a very small range in continuing decline (assessment by M. Bonta and C.H. Nelson Sutherland published in 2022, according to The World List of Cycads; category confirmed by GBIF; the Red List page could not be consulted). An earlier assessment by C. Nelson was published in 2010. The Honduran Zamia are sought after by collectors (Rivera García, 2016).

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, which is in Appendix I, Zamia sandovalii falls under CITES Appendix II, where the genus has been listed since 4 February 1977. The listing carries annotation #4 (version adopted at CoP20, in force on 5 March 2026): 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, on the other hand, requires an export permit. In the European Union the species is listed in Annex B of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, whose annexes are now set by Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026. Species+ lists the species by name under the genus listing (checked on 3 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 plants raised from cultivated seed.

Growing Zamia sandovalii

No growing advice specific to Zamia sandovalii has been published, and no grower’s report is documented. The species is rare in collections: BGCI lists five declaring gardens worldwide.

Simon Lavaud, of the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu, places it in his group of Zamia from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, rated of “medium” difficulty: species that mostly come from climates with a marked dry season, which helps them tolerate dry air and a fairly dry compost in winter. For this group he advises a free-draining compost, slightly calcareous or neutral, any kind of water, winters at 5 to 10 °C (41 to 50 °F) with daytime rises to 20 to 25 °C (68 to 77 °F), and summers at 15 to 20 °C (59 to 68 °F) at night and 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F) by day, with up to 40 °C (104 °F) tolerated if watering is generous; he insists on at least four to six months a year of summer-type temperatures (Lavaud, 2023). These are recommendations for a group, not trials with Zamia sandovalii, which grows in a wet forest rather than in a seasonally dry habitat.

Its habitat gives a few pointers: constant warmth, heavy rain, and possibly rocky, steep ground. With leaves more than 2 m long, the plant needs room.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

No planting in the ground outside Honduras has been documented. Only a frost-free tropical or warm subtropical climate could suit it outdoors; this is a deduction from its habitat, not a tested result.

Container cultivation

No container-growing report has been published. A warm, humid glasshouse, a very free-draining mineral compost and filtered light would be the most consistent approach, following the advice given for its group; it has not been validated by published trials with this species.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: present in a few American collections and declared by one Australian garden, absent from British records.

  • United States: the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists three accession numbers, 95744, 20031246 and 20150358; by their numbering they date from 1995, 2003 and 2015, the first being earlier than the first known field collections (2003), a point the catalogue does not explain. BGCI also records the species at The Huntington (San Marino, California) and at the botanical garden of the University of Hawaii at Hilo (catalogue and BGCI queried on 25 October 2026).
  • Australia: Royal Botanic Garden Sydney declares it to BGCI and lists it in its online Garden Explorer (checked on 19 October 2026).
  • 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. Outside these three countries, BGCI records it only at the Jardin botanique de Lyon (France).

Propagation

No data specific to the species. Like all Zamia, it has separate male and female plants and is propagated from fresh seed. Given its status, only seed from cultivated plants is acceptable.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species has been documented. In cultivation, Zamia are mainly at risk from rot in cold, sodden compost, and from scale insects.

Cold hardiness

There are no data on the cold tolerance of Zamia sandovalii. It lives in lowland tropical moist forest, without a cold season; nothing suggests that it tolerates frost.

Mediterranean and European experience

No cultivation result has been published in France or Italy, in the ground or in pots, and no dated frost episode concerns the species. At the Jardin zoologique tropical in La Londe-les-Maures (Var, on the French Riviera), no observation of this species has been published. For readers in Mediterranean-type climates such as California or southern Australia, a heated glasshouse is the only realistic option.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record has been published, on forums or by botanic gardens. In the UK it would need a heated glasshouse all year round.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia sandovalii has been published. In Honduras the “camotillos” have a strong reputation as poisonous plants: according to a note from the herbarium of the Yucatán Scientific Research Centre, their stems and roots are considered highly toxic and have been used in some areas to poison people and animals, and the phrase “te voy a dar camotillo” (“I’ll give you camotillo”) serves as a threat (Rivera García, 2016).

Beyond this reputation, the risk is 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; the seeds are the most dangerous part. 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

No use specific to the species is documented, apart from the reputation as a poison attached to the “camotillos” in general (see Toxicity and precautions).

Frequently asked questions

Who was Sandoval?

German Sandoval, an assistant at the herbarium of the National Autonomous University of Honduras. He led the expedition that found fertile plants, and collected the type specimen in January 2006.

What is a “camotillo”?

It is the name used in Honduras for all the country’s Zamia, including Zamia sandovalii. It comes from camote, the sweet potato, and goes with a reputation for being poisonous.

Where does it grow?

Only in Honduras, in the valley of the río Cangrejal south-east of La Ceiba (Atlántida), in tropical moist forest at about 200 to 330 m.

How can I tell it from Zamia oreillyi?

By its size. Zamia sandovalii has leaves about 2 m long and leaflets 2 to 3 cm wide; Zamia oreillyi, described in the same article, has leaves of 78 cm and leaflets 1 cm wide.

Is it endangered?

Yes. The IUCN rates it Endangered, because of its very small range and a projected decline linked to habitat loss and collecting.

Is it hardy?

No, in all likelihood. There are no cold data, and it lives in lowland tropical forest; it needs a heated glasshouse outside the tropics.

Is it poisonous?

It must be assumed so. No analysis concerns the species, but the “camotillos” of Honduras are reputed to be highly toxic, and all cycads studied contain serious toxins.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2005 [2007]). Dos plantas nuevas del género Zamia (Zamiaceae, Gymnospermae) en Honduras. Ceiba 46(1-2): 55–58. [Original description; full text read. The copy distributed by The Cycad Society is dated 2006, volume 46(1): 41–44; The World List of Cycads cites Ceiba 46(1): 41–42 (2007).]
  • Rivera García, I.S. (2016). Los venenosos camotillos en Honduras: el género Zamia (Zamiaceae). Desde el Herbario CICY 8: 77–80. [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. [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.]
  • Bonta, M. & Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2022). Zamia sandovalii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T178860A69837176. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T178860A69837176.en [IUCN assessment; reference checked on Crossref, category confirmed by GBIF; the Red List page could not be consulted.]
  • Nelson, C. (2010). Zamia sandovalii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T178860A7629696. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T178860A7629696.en [Earlier assessment; reference checked on Crossref; category not verified.]
  • 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 [Source of the etymologies given 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.]