Zamia splendens

Zamia splendens is a small cycad of south-eastern Mexico with an underground stem, growing in the shade of tropical rainforest in Chiapas, Tabasco and southern Veracruz. This species of the genus Zamia owes its name to its remarkably glossy leaflets, and in some populations its new leaves emerge bright red or pink. Described in 1984, it was sunk into Zamia katzeriana in 2008 and reinstated in 2016, but CITES and Mexican law still list it under that name. It was once thought to be a parent of Zamia katzeriana, an idea rejected by a genetic study in 2023. The IUCN rates it Endangered (2022 assessment).

Key facts about Zamia splendens

  • Accepted name: Zamia splendens Schutzman (1984), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) and by GBIF; the World Checklist of Vascular Plants of Kew, on which POWO is based, treats it as a synonym of Zamia verschaffeltii Miq. (see Taxonomy)
  • Former names and synonyms: treated as a synonym of Zamia katzeriana from 2008 to 2016, and still filed under that name by Species+ (CITES), the Mexican standard NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 and Montgomery Botanical Center
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no English name, nor any attested name in another language
  • Natural range: Mexico, in Chiapas, Tabasco and Veracruz (The World List of Cycads)
  • IUCN status: Endangered (EN), criteria B1ab(iii,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; “in danger of extinction” (P) in Mexico, under the name Zamia katzeriana
  • Documented hardiness: no measured figure; two losses to rot reported in cultivation (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, the shaded floor of tropical rainforest; in cultivation, a free-draining compost, slightly calcareous or neutral (group advice from Cycadales.eu)
  • Habit and adult size: underground stem; two to four leaves in an arching crown 0.3 to 1 m tall in the wild, up to 2 m in cultivation
  • In the UK, US and Australia: eleven American gardens declare it to BGCI, in Florida, Hawaii and California; Cairns Botanic Gardens in 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 splendens

Zamia splendens is recognised by its broad, stiff, very shiny leaflets, the same bright green on both sides, and by its male cones lying on long peduncles. The original description by Bart Schutzman (1984), read in the digitised text of the journal Phytologia, gives the following characters:

  • Habit: a perennial plant 0.3 to 1 m tall, up to 2 m in cultivation; stem grey, underground, of variable diameter, sometimes branching by dichotomy.
  • Cataphylls: 3 to 10 cm long, triangular and irregularly twisted, papery, brittle, eventually falling.
  • Leaves: two to four per stem, in a gracefully arching crown, often bright red when they emerge; petiole and rachis sturdy, wider at the base, more or less armed with prickles (up to 0.4 mm long), finely hairy to hairless.
  • Leaflets: 8 to 20 (4 to 10 pairs), very stiff and leathery, opposite to subopposite, 9 to 35 cm by 3 to 6.5 cm, elongate-elliptic to oblong or oblanceolate, finely toothed on the upper two-thirds to four-fifths (teeth 0.5 to 2.5 mm), with an acute or abruptly acuminate tip; the base widens into an unusually broad articulation 10 to 15 mm wide; upper surface strikingly glossy; veins visible but not raised, 1.5 to 2.5 mm apart.
  • Female cones: subglobose or ellipsoid, about 7 cm by 4.5 cm, with a narrowly conical tip, light brown and woolly at first, then dark green and nearly hairless.
  • Male cones: two or more per stem, conical, light brown, 4 to 5 cm by 1.1 to 1.3 cm, leaning or lying on peduncles 8 to 14 cm long; 14 to 20 pollen sacs per median scale.
  • Seeds: obovoid, up to 15 mm by 7 mm, with a fleshy coat (sarcotesta) pink to scarlet when ripe.
  • Chromosomes: 2n = 16.

The colour of the new leaves varies between populations. At the type locality they emerge bright red, turn salmon pink and then cream before becoming bright green; elsewhere they often emerge pale green (Schutzman, 1984). Schutzman and Vovides (1998) add that both colours can occur in the same population, and describe rather upright leaves, slightly arched but not sickle-shaped leaflets, and male and female cones lying down or hanging. Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) also illustrate its lying female cones.

Hybrids

The only natural crossing demonstrated in Zamia splendens is not the one long attributed to it. In 2016 Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, noting that Zamia katzeriana has characters intermediate between Zamia splendens and Zamia loddigesii, proposed that it arose from a cross between these two species. In 2023 Gutiérrez-Ortega and colleagues tested this hypothesis on ten populations of the three species, with twelve genetic markers (microsatellites), twelve morphological characters and ecological niche models, and rejected it: Zamia katzeriana split from Zamia splendens without admixture from neighbouring species.

The same study did, however, find gene flow between Zamia splendens and Zamia loddigesii at one locality. The niches of the two species have overlapped since the Last Glacial Maximum, the probable time of the mixing, but these admixed populations do not resemble Zamia katzeriana. A hybrid origin was also suggested in 2012 for Zamia grijalvensis: according to its authors, one parent could be Zamia loddigesii or a species of the Zamia katzeriana complex, in which they then included Zamia splendens; the hypothesis has not been demonstrated.

In cultivation, the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu offers an artificial hybrid that it raised itself between Zamia splendens and a smooth-leaved form of Zamia purpurea, which the nursery calls “Smooth” and describes as the smaller of the two known forms of that species; according to the nursery, Australian growers had already made this cross, with excellent results in cultivation. No named cultivar is known.

Possible confusion

Confusion mainly involves the neighbouring species of south-eastern Mexico, which Schutzman and Vovides (1998) grouped as the “Zamia splendens group”:

  • Zamia lacandona: the plants of the Selva Lacandona, in eastern Chiapas, were included in Zamia splendens in 1984; described separately in 1998, they usually have a single arching leaf, sickle-shaped leaflets and upright female cones on a short peduncle;
  • Zamia purpurea: new leaves dark reddish purple, leaflets darker above than below, with raised veins and an acute tip, about four pollen sacs per scale (14 to 20 in Zamia splendens);
  • Zamia cremnophila: hanging leaves, sickle-shaped leaflets, upright male and female cones;
  • Zamia standleyi: arching leaves, sickle-shaped leaflets folded lengthwise, new leaves brown, bronze or pale green;
  • Zamia skinneri: raised veins, upright male cones, cone scales with a marked hexagonal face;
  • Zamia katzeriana and Zamia loddigesii: found in the same region; some plants of Zamia katzeriana have leaflets close to those of Zamia splendens, others close to those of Zamia loddigesii (Pérez-Farrera and colleagues, 2016); an upright female cone peduncle and narrow, oblong-lanceolate leaflets separate Zamia katzeriana (Lindstrom and colleagues, 2024).

According to Schutzman (1984), it also differs from other Mexican Zamia, such as Zamia fischeri, Zamia loddigesii and Zamia furfuracea, in its cataphylls, the colour of its new leaves, the size, thickness, gloss and articulation of its leaflets, its small cones and the shape of the cone scales.

Taxonomy

Zamia splendens is an accepted name in The World List of Cycads. Bart Schutzman, of the University of Florida, described it in 1984 in Phytologia (volume 55, issue 5, pages 299 to 304), from plants in the research collection of Fairchild Tropical Garden, in Florida, that struck him as clearly different. He based it on their morphology and their karyotype, which he describes in detail: 2n = 16, as in Zamia purpurea, but with differently shaped chromosomes.

The type is the specimen J. Watson 1870 (the number 1870 is confirmed by IPNI; The World List of Cycads gives “1980”), prepared from plants grown at Fairchild Tropical Garden under accession number FTG 76-1046. These plants had been collected by Merrill Rogers in Chiapas, 18 km along the road from Mexican Highway 190 to Malpaso, at about 500 m. The holotype is kept at the New York Botanical Garden herbarium (NY), with isotypes at FLAS, FTG and MEXU.

The name then went through several changes:

  • in 1998 Schutzman and Vovides separated the plants of the Selva Lacandona as Zamia lacandona;
  • in 2008 Nicolalde-Morejón and colleagues, in a paper on the identity of Zamia katzeriana and Zamia verschaffeltii (Brittonia 60: 38–48), sank Zamia splendens into Zamia katzeriana;
  • in 2016 Pérez-Farrera and colleagues showed that the three taxa of the region (Zamia splendens, Zamia katzeriana and Zamia loddigesii) form three groups distinct in leaflet morphology and anatomy, and reinstated Zamia splendens (Phytotaxa 270: 161–181);
  • in 2023 the genetic study by Gutiérrez-Ortega and colleagues confirmed that Zamia splendens and Zamia katzeriana are two distinct lineages.

Not all databases are up to date. Species+, the CITES database, the Mexican standard NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 and the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center, in Florida, still treat Zamia splendens as a synonym of Zamia katzeriana. The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, the Kew list on which POWO is based, gives Zamia splendens Schutzman, in its version of 4 June 2026, as a synonym of Zamia verschaffeltii Miq. (1869), a name that The World List of Cycads regards as doubtful (nomen dubium). This site follows The World List of Cycads, the reference list of the IUCN Cycad Specialist Group.

As for relationships, Schutzman (1984) compared it with Zamia purpurea and Zamia skinneri. According to Lindstrom and colleagues (2024), the phylogeny of Calonje and colleagues (2019) placed it in a “purpurea” clade with Zamia purpurea, Zamia katzeriana, Zamia lacandona, Zamia cremnophila and Zamia grijalvensis. Their own transcriptome-based phylogeny, which sampled a plant from Chiapas, places Zamia katzeriana as sister to the morphologically similar Zamia splendens, and shows that Zamia purpurea is more genetically distinct from this group than previously thought.

Etymology and history

The epithet comes from the Latin splendens, “shining” or “brilliant”, and refers to the glossy leaflets (The World List of Cycads, after Haynes, 2022). Schutzman explains it himself: the name draws attention to the striking leaves of “this beautiful species”, with their highly polished, shining look.

The species was in cultivation before it was described: Schutzman noticed it in the collection of Fairchild Tropical Garden, and the plate of the description was drawn from a living plant at the University of Florida. In 1984 he knew it in cultivation from plants of the type locality, of Cintalapa de Figueroa and Tuxtla Gutiérrez in north-western Chiapas, and of San Jerónimo Tulijá in the Lacandon forest; near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, plants were reportedly collected at about 1,500 m. During a 1993 expedition with members of Fairchild Tropical Garden, plants almost identical to the type were found in Tabasco, extending its known range (Schutzman and Vovides, 1998). Two short articles published in 2004 in the Cycad Newsletter of the Cycad Society deal with growing it in central Florida and in California (Broome, 2004; McDaniel, 2004).

Common names

No common name is attested for Zamia splendens, in English or in Spanish. It circulates in the trade and on forums under its scientific name only.

In the wild

Zamia splendens lives in south-eastern Mexico, in Chiapas, Tabasco and Veracruz, according to The World List of Cycads. At the type locality, Schutzman describes it as common on the shaded floor of tropical rainforest, with an Anthurium (Anthurium leuconeurum), and sometimes spilling onto the roadside bank, at about 500 m.

Its populations lie close to those of Zamia katzeriana and Zamia loddigesii, with which it was studied in 2016 and 2023. Its pollinators and phenology are not documented.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia splendens is rated Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List under criteria B1ab(iii,v), in an assessment by Miguel Ángel Pérez-Farrera and Andrew P. Vovides published in 2022; GBIF shows the same category. These criteria refer to a small extent of occurrence, with a continuing decline in the quality of habitat and in the number of mature plants.

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, which is in Appendix I, Zamia splendens 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 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+ knows it only as a synonym of Zamia katzeriana, which does not change its status (checked on 3 October 2026).

In Mexico, the standard NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 lists Zamia katzeriana as “in danger of extinction” (P), citing Zamia splendens as a synonym. 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 splendens

No growing advice specific to Zamia splendens has been published by a botanic garden or a specialist society. All that is known is that it was already grown in Florida in the early 1980s, where it could reach 2 m in height, twice its size in the wild (Schutzman, 1984).

Its habitat, the shaded floor of an ever-wet tropical forest, points to partial shade, warmth all year round and a free-draining compost. Simon Lavaud, of the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu, in Montpellier, places it in his group of Zamia from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, rated of “medium” difficulty. For this group he advises a free-draining compost, slightly calcareous or neutral, winters at 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 completely dried out, then at least four to six months of summer warmth, 15 to 20 °C (59 to 68 °F) at night and 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F) by day (Lavaud, 2023). These are recommendations for a group, not trials with this species. The two growers’ reports published on forums are both losses to rot (see Cold hardiness), which calls for care with watering, especially in cool weather.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

No in-ground trial has been published outside the tropics. In frost-free, humid regions, a shaded spot in very free-draining soil would be the most consistent approach; it has not been validated by published trials.

Container cultivation

Its small size makes it a plant for a pot, in a warm glasshouse or a bright room, with the group advice above: warm and regularly 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: widely held in American collections, declared by one Australian garden, absent from British records.

  • United States: BGCI records it in eleven gardens: Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Miami), Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables), Miami Beach Botanical Garden, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Sarasota) and Edison and Ford Winter Estates (Fort Myers) in Florida; the National Tropical Botanical Garden (Kalāheo), Honolulu Botanical Gardens, Waimea Valley (Haleiwa) and the botanical garden of the University of Hawaii at Hilo in Hawaii; The Huntington (San Marino) and San Diego Botanic Garden (Encinitas) in California. The online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center lists two accession numbers, 93930 and 93941, under Zamia splendens, which it treats as a synonym of Zamia katzeriana (catalogue and BGCI queried on 25 October 2026).
  • Australia: Cairns Botanic Gardens (Queensland), according to BGCI.
  • United Kingdom: no record in BGCI.

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 (botanical garden of the Institute of Biology of UNAM in Mexico City, Francisco Javier Clavijero Botanic Garden in Xalapa), in Europe (Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam, Prague Botanical Garden) and in Singapore (Singapore Botanic Gardens).

Propagation

No propagation data specific to the species has been published. Like all Zamia, it has separate male and female plants and is propagated from fresh seed, which is exempt from CITES permits. The stem, sometimes branched, has given rise to no published report of division. Given its status, only seed from cultivated plants is acceptable.

Pests and diseases

No pest specific to the species is documented. The only problem reported in cultivation is rot. A grower from Belley (Ain) and Montpellier (Hérault), in France, reported on the Fous de palmiers forum in August 2013 that the growing point of his plant had rotted; the underground stem was still firm but the plant had not yet resprouted, whereas another Zamia affected in the same way had formed a new growing point after three years.

Cold hardiness

The cold tolerance of Zamia splendens is not known: no minimum temperature has been measured or reported in a verifiable way. Cycadales.eu gives its group a winter tolerance of 5 to 10 °C (41 to 50 °F) (Lavaud, 2023), which is not a threshold measured on the species. As a plant of tropical rainforest, it should be kept frost-free until trials show otherwise.

Mediterranean and European experience

A grower in Ravenna (Emilia-Romagna, Italy), who gives his area as USDA zone 8a/8b, reported on the Italian forum Tropicamente in May 2011 that he had lost his Zamia splendens to rot, in a climate he describes as very wet; he does not say whether it was in a pot or in the ground, nor at what temperature. It was a failure due to excess moisture rather than to frost. In France, no in-ground trial is documented and no dated frost episode concerns the species; the only useful mention on the Fous de palmiers forum is the loss of the growing point described above, with no established link to cold. 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 and on the dry side in winter.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record has been published. Trebrown, a British nursery, gives it USDA zone 9b, without saying what this commercial rating is based on. In the UK it would need a heated glasshouse in winter.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia splendens 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

No traditional use is documented for Zamia splendens. Its only known use is ornamental, in collections.

Frequently asked questions

Are Zamia splendens and Zamia katzeriana the same plant?

No, according to recent studies. They were merged from 2008 to 2016, but leaflet morphology (2016) and then genetics (2023) show two distinct species, and a 2024 phylogeny treats them as sister species. CITES and Mexican law still use the name Zamia katzeriana for both.

Is it a parent of Zamia katzeriana?

No. This hypothesis, put forward in 2016, was rejected in 2023: Zamia katzeriana split from Zamia splendens without hybridisation. The study did, however, find gene flow between Zamia splendens and Zamia loddigesii at one locality.

Why are its new leaves red?

It depends on the population. At the type locality they emerge bright red, then turn salmon pink and cream before greening; elsewhere they often emerge pale green. Both forms can occur in the same population.

How big does it get?

It stays small. The stem is underground and the two to four leaves form a crown 0.3 to 1 m tall in the wild; in cultivation it can reach 2 m.

Is it hardy?

No, as far as is known. No cold trial has been published; it comes from tropical rainforest and the losses reported in cultivation were caused by rot. Grow it frost-free, in a glasshouse or a bright room.

Is it protected?

Yes. It is rated Endangered by the IUCN (2022), listed in CITES Appendix II and in Annex B in the European Union, and protected in Mexico. Seeds are exempt from CITES permits; plants are not.

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

  • Schutzman, B. (1984). A new species of Zamia L. (Zamiaceae, Cycadales) from Chiapas, Mexico. Phytologia 55(5): 299–304. [Original description; digitised text read.]
  • 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 [Description of Zamia lacandona, Zamia splendens group, extension to Tabasco; text read.]
  • Nicolalde-Morejón, F., Vovides, A.P., Stevenson, D.W. & Sosa, V. (2008). The identity of Zamia katzeriana and Z. verschaffeltii (Zamiaceae). Brittonia 60(1): 38–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12228-008-9000-9 [Synonymy under Zamia katzeriana; reference checked on Crossref, text not consulted.]
  • Pérez-Farrera, M.A., Vovides, A.P., Ruiz-Castillejos, C., Galicia, S., Cibrián-Jaramillo, A. & López, S. (2016). Anatomy and morphology suggest a hybrid origin of Zamia katzeriana (Zamiaceae). Phytotaxa 270(3): 161–181. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.270.3.1 [Reinstatement of Zamia splendens, hybrid hypothesis; abstract read.]
  • Gutiérrez-Ortega, J.S., Pérez-Farrera, M.A., López, S. & Vovides, A.P. (2023). Demographic history and species delimitation of three Zamia species (Zamiaceae) in south-eastern Mexico: Z. katzeriana is not a product of hybridization. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 202(1): 110–133. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boac062 [Rejection of the hybrid origin of Zamia katzeriana, gene flow between Zamia splendens and Zamia loddigesii; abstract read.]
  • 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 [Original description of Zamia grijalvensis; possible hybrid origin and supposed parents; 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 [Phylogeny of the genus; cited after Lindstrom et al. (2024).]
  • Pérez-Farrera, M.A. & Vovides, A.P. (2022). Zamia splendens. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T107486883A107486886. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T107486883A107486886.en [IUCN assessment; reference checked on Crossref, category confirmed by GBIF; the Red List page could not be consulted.]
  • Broome, T. (2004). Growing Zamia splendens in Central Florida. The Cycad Newsletter 27(2): 12. [Listed by The World List of Cycads; not consulted.]
  • McDaniel, I. (2004). Growing Zamia splendens in California. The Cycad Newsletter 27(2): 11. [Listed by 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.]
  • 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.]