Zamia spartea

Zamia spartea is a small cycad of southern Mexico, endemic to a narrow area of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the state of Oaxaca, where it grows at 200 to 400 m. Described in 1868 by Alphonse de Candolle, this species of the genus Zamia owes its name to its very narrow, stiff leaflets, only a few millimetres wide, which recall the stems of a broom. Long treated as a mere variety of Zamia loddigesii (Zamia loddigesii var. spartea), it is now recognised as a species in its own right, rated Critically Endangered by the IUCN.

Key facts about Zamia spartea

  • Accepted name: Zamia spartea A.DC. (1868), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), 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: Palmifolium sparteum (A.DC.) Kuntze (1891); Zamia loddigesii var. spartea (A.DC.) J.Schust. (1932)
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no English name; “tzukix”, a local name recorded in 1868 in the original description
  • Natural range: Mexico, state of Oaxaca (Isthmus of Tehuantepec), at 200 to 400 m
  • IUCN status: Critically Endangered (CR), criterion A2ad, 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 figures (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, lowland tropical forest; in cultivation, a free-draining compost (group advice from Cycadales.eu)
  • Habit and adult size: underground stem; two to five leaves (sometimes eight) 35 to 60 cm long, with leaflets 20 to 53 cm long and 3 to 6 mm wide
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Montgomery Botanical Center and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Florida), The Huntington, Lotusland, San Diego Botanic Garden, the New York Botanical Garden and the University of Hawaii at Hilo (US); Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and Cairns Botanic Gardens (Australia); 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 spartea

Zamia spartea is recognised by its upright leaves, its slightly twisted petiole and, above all, its linear, leathery, stiff leaflets, only 3 to 6 mm wide, which carry just five or six small teeth near the tip. New leaves emerge reddish brown. Description after the measurements published in 2024 (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2024):

  • Leaves: two to five (sometimes eight), upright, 35 to 60 cm long and 30 to 52 cm wide; petiole twisted, rachis slightly twisted; 20 to 40 fine prickles on the petiole; greyish-white hairs on the petiole; new leaves reddish brown.
  • Leaflets: 15 to 27 pairs, linear, leathery; the median leaflets measure 20 to 53 cm by 0.3 to 0.6 cm and carry five or six teeth.
  • Male cones: two or three per head, 6.5 to 8.5 cm long and 1.4 to 1.9 cm wide, on a peduncle 6 to 8 cm long.
  • Female cones: cylindrical, brown, with a sharp tip, 9 to 12 cm long and 4.2 to 4.8 cm wide, on a short peduncle 3.4 to 3.8 cm long; 60 to 70 scales.

The original description by Alphonse de Candolle, based on an incomplete herbarium specimen, already gave the essentials: leaflets opposite, rarely alternate, about twenty on each side, long-linear and tapering, hairless, stiff, with seven to ten veins, 25 to 30 cm by 4 to 5 mm, with a rolled margin and three or four small teeth at the tip; petiole densely armed with straight prickles 1 to 2 mm long, the rachis less so; male and female peduncles covered in tawny down (de Candolle, 1868). The stem is underground, as in related species (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2011).

Hybrids

No natural hybrid is documented in the scientific literature. Artificial crosses have been made: according to Pérez-Farrera and colleagues (2012), who summarise earlier work, Norstog (1987) obtained fertile hybrids in cultivation between a male Zamia furfuracea and a female Zamia spartea. More recently, the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu has offered an artificial hybrid that it raised itself, Zamia spartea (female parent) × Zamia purpurea (male parent); according to its product page, the young plants already show fairly leathery, deeply veined leaflets like those of Zamia purpurea.

On the French forum Fous de palmiers, an amateur claimed between 2010 and 2014 that Zamia loddigesii was a stabilised hybrid of Zamia furfuracea and Zamia spartea; no publication supports this idea, and recent work treats Zamia loddigesii as a species in its own right.

Possible confusion

Zamia spartea belongs to a set of Mexican species with narrow leaflets that are easy to confuse on sterile specimens. A key published in 2024 separates them (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2024):

  • Zamia lawsoniana (southern Veracruz, northern Chiapas, Tabasco): the most similar in its leaves, but new leaves light green, 60 to 70 prickles on the petiole, light brown female cones and long peduncles (10 to 25 cm for female cones, 19 to 32 cm for male cones); oak forest and evergreen tropical forest;
  • Zamia loddigesii (Gulf of Mexico coastal plain): lanceolate leaflets 1.8 to 3.1 cm wide, with 13 to 18 teeth; cream to yellowish female cones;
  • Zamia stenophyllidia (Michoacán): thin, papery leaflets, a straight petiole with two to six stout prickles, new leaves light green, yellowish ovoid female cones;
  • Zamia spartea: linear, leathery leaflets 3 to 6 mm wide, new leaves reddish brown, a twisted petiole with 20 to 40 fine prickles, brown cones on short peduncles (3 to 8 cm).

Zamia furfuracea, widely grown, has nothing in common with it: its leaflets are broad, obovate to oblanceolate, thick and keeled.

Taxonomy

Zamia spartea 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 name has gone through two changes of rank or genus, both now abandoned:

  • in 1891 Otto Kuntze moved it to the genus Palmifolium, as Palmifolium sparteum; that generic name is now a synonym of Zamia;
  • in 1932 Julius Schuster, in his treatment of the cycads for the series Das Pflanzenreich, reduced it to a variety of Zamia loddigesii, as Zamia loddigesii var. spartea.

In the revision of the Zamia of “Mega-Mexico” published in 2009 by Fernando Nicolalde-Morejón, Andrew P. Vovides and Dennis W. Stevenson, and in the later work of the same team, Zamia spartea is treated as a distinct species, endemic to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2009, according to Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2011 and 2024). In 2011 the same authors noted that, on morphology, the species should be studied together with the Zamia loddigesii complex, with its leathery leaflets and underground stems, whose limits remain difficult (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2011). In 2024 the study that reinstated Zamia lawsoniana measured specimens of Zamia spartea and confirmed the characters that separate it from its neighbours. The transcriptome-based phylogeny of Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) included a plant from Oaxaca. For readers, the variety name “Zamia loddigesii var. spartea”, still found in older sources, refers to the same plant.

Etymology and history

The epithet spartea comes from the Latin sparteus, “of esparto” or “grass-like”, and refers to the stiff, broom-like texture of the leaflets (Haynes, 2022, followed by The World List of Cycads). De Candolle himself wrote that the leaflets had the “consistency of esparto”.

The species was described in 1868 by Alphonse de Candolle in the Prodromus (volume 16, part 2, page 539), from a herbarium specimen sent in 1832 by Alamán from southern Mexico; the locality is given as “prope Acayucam, Verapa, Chimalapi”. The type, unnumbered, is kept in the de Candolle herbarium in Geneva (G-DC); The World List of Cycads gives the locality as “Chimalapi”. The specimen was incomplete: the lower part had been cut off, and the cones were not whole (de Candolle, 1868).

Common names

There is no English name. The original description of 1868 reports that the plant was called “tzukix” in the area where it was collected, without naming the language (de Candolle, 1868). No modern source repeats this name.

In the wild

Zamia spartea is endemic to a small area of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the state of Oaxaca, at 200 to 400 m (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2024). The recent collections cited come from the municipalities of Matías Romero Avendaño (La Princesa, 220 m) and San Juan Guichicovi (Ocotal, 240 m). The sources differ on its habitat: the 2024 study speaks of tropical deciduous forest, the 2011 study of evergreen and deciduous tropical forest (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2011 and 2024).

South-eastern Mexico (southern Veracruz, Tabasco, south-eastern Oaxaca, northern Chiapas) is one of the two major centres of diversity of the Zamia of Mega-Mexico: seven species live there, including Zamia spartea, Zamia cremnophila, Zamia katzeriana, Zamia lacandona, Zamia loddigesii and Zamia purpurea, 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 (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2011). The pollinators and biology of the species are not documented.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia spartea is rated Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List under criterion A2ad, which refers to an observed population decline of at least 80 % over ten years or three generations, estimated from direct observation and levels of exploitation (assessment by J.D. Bösenberg 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 J. Chemnick and T. Gregory, was published in 2010.

Herbarium collections are few, especially outside Mexico: in 2011 only one was recorded in the foreign herbaria studied (Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, 2011).

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, which is in Appendix I, Zamia spartea 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 spartea

No growing advice specific to Zamia spartea has been published, and no detailed grower’s report is documented. 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 and 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 spartea.

Its habitat gives the same pointers: low altitude, a hot climate and, in deciduous forest, a probable dry season.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

The only published trace of outdoor cultivation is a female plant in cone photographed in 1998 in a private garden in Los Angeles, California, shown by the Virtual Cycad Encyclopedia of the Florida association PACSOF, without any information on conditions. In frost-free regions, a sheltered spot in very free-draining soil would be the most consistent approach; it has not been validated by published trials.

Container cultivation

No container-growing report has been published. Its small size (leaves no more than 60 cm long) makes it a plant that can be kept in a pot, following the group advice above: warm and fairly well watered in summer, kept on the dry side and frost-free in winter. This is a deduction, not a tested result.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: well represented in American collections, declared by two Australian gardens, absent from British records.

  • United States: the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists one accession number, 93927, from 1993 according to its numbering; Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Miami) lists it in its online Garden Explorer (checked on 19 October 2026). BGCI also records it at The Huntington (San Marino, California), Ganna Walska Lotusland (Santa Barbara, California), San Diego Botanic Garden (Encinitas, California), the New York Botanical Garden and the botanical garden of the University of Hawaii at Hilo (catalogue and BGCI queried on 25 October 2026).
  • Australia: Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, which declares it to BGCI and lists it in its online Garden Explorer (checked on 19 October 2026), and Cairns Botanic Gardens (Queensland), according to BGCI.
  • 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. Elsewhere, BGCI records it in Mexico (Francisco Javier Clavijero Botanic Garden in Xalapa, Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca, Ye’Tsil orchid pavilion in Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán) and in Europe (Ghent University Botanical Garden in Belgium, Prague Botanical Garden in the Czech Republic).

Propagation

No data specific to the species. Like all Zamia, it has separate male and female plants and is propagated from fresh seed; Cycadales.eu has also obtained artificial hybrid seedlings with Zamia purpurea (see Hybrids). 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 figures for the cold tolerance of Zamia spartea. It lives at low altitude on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in a hot climate; nothing indicates that it tolerates frost.

Mediterranean and European experience

No cultivation result has been published in France or Italy, in the ground or in pots. The French forum Fous de palmiers mentions it only in connection with the supposed origin of Zamia loddigesii, without any growing report, and no dated frost episode concerns it. 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, it should be kept frost-free.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

Apart from the plant photographed in Los Angeles in 1998, with no temperature or duration given, no cold record has been published. Trebrown, a British nursery, gives it USDA zone 9b, and Cycadales.eu gives zone 10a for its spartea × purpurea hybrid: these are commercial ratings, not measured results. In the UK it would need a heated glasshouse in winter.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia spartea 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; 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

The original description states that the plant was considered an antidote to snakebite (“mordicationi serpentum antidota”), without saying which part was used or how (de Candolle, 1868). No study has examined this use, which must not be copied: cycads are poisonous, and a snakebite requires urgent medical care.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Zamia spartea mean?

“Like esparto”. The Latin epithet describes the very narrow, stiff leaflets, like the stems of a broom; de Candolle spoke of an “esparto-like consistency”.

Is it a variety of Zamia loddigesii?

No, not any more. It was treated as Zamia loddigesii var. spartea in 1932, but recent revisions recognise it as a distinct species, with much narrower leaflets and new leaves that emerge reddish brown.

How can I tell it from Zamia lawsoniana?

By the colour of the young leaves and the length of the peduncles. Zamia spartea has reddish-brown new leaves and cones on short peduncles; Zamia lawsoniana has light green new leaves and cones on long peduncles.

Where does it grow?

Only in Mexico, in a small area of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Oaxaca), at 200 to 400 m.

Is it endangered?

Yes, critically. The IUCN rates it Critically Endangered, because of a population decline estimated at 80 % or more, linked in particular to collecting.

Is it hardy?

Not documented. There are no cold data; it is a lowland plant of a hot climate, to be kept frost-free.

Is it poisonous?

It must be assumed so. No analysis concerns the species, but the cycads studied contain serious toxins, especially in the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • de Candolle, A. (1868). Cycadaceae. In: de Candolle, A.P. (ed.), Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis 16(2): 522–548. [Original description, page 539; OCR text read.]
  • Nicolalde-Morejón, F., Martínez-Domínguez, L., González-Aguilar, M.A. & Stevenson, D.W. (2024). Reestablishment of Zamia lawsoniana (Zamiaceae, Cycadales), an endemic species of Mexico, with first description of the ovulate strobilus. Acta Botanica Mexicana 131: e2262. https://doi.org/10.21829/abm131.2024.2262 [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.]
  • 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 [Reference revision; not consulted, cited by the papers read; reference checked on Crossref.]
  • 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.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Zamia spartea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T42118A69835242. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T42118A69835242.en [IUCN assessment; reference checked on Crossref, category confirmed by GBIF; the Red List page could not be consulted.]
  • Chemnick, J. & Gregory, T. (2010). Zamia spartea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T42118A10653644. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T42118A10653644.en [Earlier assessment; reference checked on Crossref; category not verified.]
  • Pérez-Farrera, M.Á. et al. (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 [Summary of earlier work on hybridisation, including the Zamia furfuracea × Zamia spartea crosses of Norstog (1987).]
  • 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.]