Zamia stricta: a Vulnerable Cycad from Eastern Cuba

Zamia stricta is a small cycad endemic to eastern Cuba, known from the province of Santiago de Cuba, where it grows in low-altitude evergreen forest with small-leaved trees. This species of the genus Zamia has stiff, upright leaves carrying numerous very narrow leaflets, about 2 mm wide: it is this “very straight” habit that its Latin name describes. The Dutch botanist Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel described it in 1851 from a plant grown in the Amsterdam botanic garden. Long merged with Zamia angustifolia, as a variety or a mere synonym, it is now an accepted species of the Zamia pumila complex. The IUCN rates it Vulnerable.

Key facts about Zamia stricta

Accepted name: Zamia stricta Miq. (1851), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), by GBIF and by the Flora de la República de Cuba; POWO could not be consulted directly
Former names and synonyms: Zamia angustifolia var. stricta (Miq.) Regel (1878); Palmifolium strictum (Miq.) Kuntze (1891); treated as a synonym of Zamia angustifolia by Stevenson (1987)
Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
Common names: no English name; in Cuba “guáyara”, “yuca cimarrona”, “yuquilla”, “yuquilla de paredón” and “yuquilla de ratón”, names shared with other Cuban zamias
Natural range: eastern Cuba, province of Santiago de Cuba: Santa María de Loreto plateau according to the Flora de la República de Cuba, municipality of Songo-La Maya according to The World List of Cycads
IUCN status: Vulnerable (VU), criterion D2, 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 measurement for the species; its group is said to tolerate temperatures close to freezing (see Cold hardiness)
Light and soil: low-altitude microphyllous evergreen forest (Cuban flora); in cultivation, according to a French specialist nursery, a free-draining mineral compost, slightly calcareous, with a cool, dry winter
Habit and adult size: trunk about 6 cm across; four to ten obliquely upright leaves 40 to 140 cm long; 7 to 30 leaflets on each side, 10 to 30 cm long and about 2 mm wide (Cuban flora)
In the UK, US and Australia: one accession at Montgomery Botanical Center (Florida), with a contradictory note in the catalogue; no British or Australian record
Toxicity: no data specific to the species; treat it as poisonous (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Zamia stricta

Look for very narrow linear leaflets, about 2 mm wide, stiff and yellowish green, on rigid, obliquely upright leaves, and a petiole without prickles. Among Cuban zamias only Zamia angustifolia and, to a lesser extent, Zamia integrifolia have leaflets as fine; the key of the Flora de la República de Cuba separates them by the number of leaflets and the size of the cones (see Possible confusion). The reference description is that of the Cuban flora (González Géigel, 2003):

Trunk: about 6 cm across.
Leaves: four to ten, obliquely upright, 40 to 140 cm long, stiff and flat; young leaves carry a rusty-brown down that is lost with age; petiole unarmed, roughly half-cylindrical, flat on the upper side, 20 to 60 cm long.
Leaflets: alternate to nearly opposite, 7 to 30 on each side of the rachis, narrowly linear, 10 to 30 cm long and usually 2 mm wide (1 to 5 mm), stiff, papery to leathery, yellowish green, blunt, with a narrowed yellowish base and a slightly rolled margin carrying one to three (rarely five) small teeth near the tip.
Cataphylls: numerous, especially at the base of the cones, triangular, rusty brown.
Male cones: cylindrical, 6 to 10 cm long and 2 to 3 cm across, slightly tapering towards the top, on a peduncle 3 to 7 cm long; scales covered in dark grey to blackish hairs, with a paler edge.
Female cones: cylindrical-ovoid to cylindrical, 8 to 12 cm long and 2 to 3 cm across, ending in a short conical point, on a peduncle 5 to 10 cm long; scales with grey to blackish hairs that wear off with age.
Seeds: ovoid, 1.5 to 2 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide, with an orange to orange-red sarcotesta (the fleshy outer coat).
Coning and fruiting: season unknown.

Miquel’s original Latin description (1851), based on a small plant grown in Amsterdam whose cones he never saw, gives much more modest dimensions: an ovoid to almost spherical trunk about 2 inches (roughly 5 cm) high and wide; a petiole 2 to 5 inches long (roughly 5 to 13 cm), as thick as a pigeon’s quill; 14 to 24 leaflets on each side, crowded, almost all of the same length, usually 3 to 4 inches (roughly 8 to 10 cm) long and one line (roughly 2 mm) wide, leathery, dark green and slightly glossy above, paler beneath, entire or with one or two small teeth below the tip, with three veins visible to the naked eye and five under a lens. He stressed the “stiff and bristling” look (strictae et squarrosae) of the leaves, due to their shortness and crowded leaflets. The metric equivalents of these old units are approximate.

The gap between the two descriptions is probably due, at least in part, to the type being a collection plant, perhaps young; no published source explains it.

Hybrids

No hybrid, natural or artificial, has been documented. Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) attribute some conflicts in the phylogeny of the genus to ancient or recent hybridisation, but none of their data concern Zamia stricta specifically.

Possible confusion

The historical confusion is with Zamia angustifolia, the other very narrow-leaved zamia, which grows in the Bahamas (Eleuthera) and also in eastern Cuba (provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo), in semi-deciduous forest. Miquel himself had first referred the Amsterdam plant to Zamia angustifolia in 1848, before describing it as new. The key of the Flora de la República de Cuba (2003) gives the following criteria:

Zamia angustifolia: about 60 leaflets on each side of the rachis, 2 to 6 mm wide; small cones, under 6 cm;
Zamia stricta: 7 to 30 leaflets on each side, usually 2 mm wide (1 to 5 mm); male cones 6 to 8 cm and female cones 8 to 12 cm in the key; female cone ending in a short conical point;
Zamia integrifolia, also present in Cuba: the same number of leaflets and cones of the same size, but broader leaflets, about 5 mm (up to 7 mm), and a female cone abruptly truncated at the top.

The other Cuban zamias have clearly broader leaflets (over 8 mm) toothed at least in their upper third: Zamia pumila, with fewer than ten leaflets on each side, Zamia pygmaea and Zamia ottonis, or Zamia erosa, which the 2003 flora treats under its synonym Zamia amblyphyllidia. In the absence of a modern revision of all the Cuban zamias, a plant sold as Zamia stricta without documented provenance should be identified with caution.

In the same 1851 paper, Miquel described Zamia angustissima and Zamia yatesii, two other plants grown in Amsterdam; the Cuban flora now places both in Zamia angustifolia.

Taxonomy

Zamia stricta Miq. is accepted by The World List of Cycads, GBIF and the Flora de la República de Cuba; POWO could not be consulted directly. Miquel published it in 1851 in the Nieuwe Verhandelingen der Eerste Klasse van het Koninklijk-Nederlandsch Instituut of Amsterdam (series 3, volume 4, page 183), in a paper titled “Cycadeae quaedam americanae, partim novae”. The description is based on a plant grown in the Amsterdam botanic garden (“Colitur in Horto Amstelodamensi”), which Miquel said only came from “warm America”.

The holotype is kept in the Utrecht herbarium (U) according to The World List of Cycads; the Flora de la República de Cuba, whose author saw a photograph of it, describes it as a specimen of a plant grown in Amsterdam and originating from Cuba. The flora does not say on what basis the Cuban origin was established.

The history of the name is one of repeated mergers with Zamia angustifolia. Eduard Regel made it a variety in 1878 (Zamia angustifolia var. stricta, Gartenflora 27: 13); Otto Kuntze moved it in 1891 to the now abandoned genus Palmifolium (Palmifolium strictum); Dennis Stevenson, in 1987, treated it as a plain synonym of Zamia angustifolia (The World List of Cycads). The 2003 Flora de la República de Cuba recognised it again as a species, endemic to the east of the island, and The World List of Cycads does the same. For readers, this means that older books and labels may file the plant under Zamia angustifolia.

Zamia stricta belongs to the zamias of the West Indies and Florida, often grouped as the Zamia pumila complex; the French nursery Cycadales.eu counts eight “official” species in this Caribbean group, including Zamia stricta, and points out that the Cuban zamias remain poorly delimited. The transcriptome-based study of Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) sampled a plant from Santiago de Cuba province: it places the Caribbean species, together with Zamia integrifolia of Florida, in a single clade (clade I), whose diversification is thought to have begun about 8 million years ago, in the late Miocene. The text of the paper does not detail the exact position of Zamia stricta within this clade.

Etymology and history

The epithet comes from the Latin strictus, “very straight”, and refers to the thin, straight leaves (Haynes, 2022, followed by The World List of Cycads). Miquel explained it in his description: seen as a whole, the leaves look stiff and bristling.

Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (1811–1871), a Dutch botanist, wrote extensively on cycads, often describing them from plants grown in Dutch gardens. In the 1851 paper he described in succession Zamia yatesii, Zamia stricta, Zamia angustissima and Zamia ottonis, several of these plants having reached Amsterdam from Belgian gardens.

Common names

There is no English name. In Cuba, the Flora de la República de Cuba gives for Zamia stricta, after Roig (1963), the names “guáyara”, “yuca cimarrona”, “yuquilla”, “yuquilla de paredón” and “yuquilla de ratón”. These names are not specific to it: the same flora also gives them for Zamia integrifolia, and the first three for all the zamias of the island.

In the wild

Zamia stricta is endemic to eastern Cuba. The Flora de la República de Cuba records it in Santiago de Cuba province, on the Santa María de Loreto plateau, in microphyllous (small-leaved) evergreen forest at low altitude; The World List of Cycads places it in the municipality of Songo-La Maya, in the same province, and Lindstrom and colleagues (2024) used a plant from this province. The coning and fruiting seasons are unknown.

The published sources give neither the extent of its range, nor population numbers, nor details of the threats. At genus level, the Cuban flora reports pollination by small weevils and beetles of the genera Rhopalotria and Pharaxonotha, but no observation concerns this species.

Conservation status and regulation

Zamia stricta is rated Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List under criterion D2, in the 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). This criterion applies to species known from a very small area or very few localities, exposed to a plausible threat that could rapidly worsen their situation. An earlier assessment, by D.W. Stevenson, was published in 2010.

Like all Zamia except Zamia restrepoi, which is in Appendix I, Zamia stricta 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+ has no separate entry for the species, which is covered by the listing “Zamia spp.” (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 stricta

No growing advice specific to Zamia stricta has been published, and no grower’s report is documented. Simon Lavaud, of the French specialist nursery Cycadales.eu, places it in his group of Zamia from Florida and the Caribbean, rated “easy”: species that tolerate temperatures close to freezing, cope well with Mediterranean-type winters and with drought, and almost all come from limestone habitats (Lavaud, 2023). For this group he advises:

a free-draining mineral compost, about 80 % mineral, slightly to strongly calcareous (some lime seems essential to him); any kind of water;
in winter, 1 to 10 °C (34 to 50 °F) with daytime rises to 15 to 20 °C (59 to 68 °F), keeping the compost fairly dry but never completely parched;
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;
at least four to six months a year of summer-type temperatures, without which the plant declines in the medium term.

These are recommendations from experience for a group of species, not results obtained with Zamia stricta; the Cuban flora does not describe the soil of the forest where it grows.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

No in-ground planting of Zamia stricta has been documented. In frost-free or nearly frost-free climates, a sunny to lightly shaded spot in very free-draining, limy soil would follow the group advice above; this has not been validated by published trials with the species.

Container cultivation

No container-growing report has been published. Its small trunk and narrow leaves make it a plant that can be kept in a pot of mineral compost, brought under cover for winter where frosts occur, following the group advice. This is a deduction, not a tested result.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: a single, ambiguous American record and nothing in Britain or Australia.

United States: the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists one accession under Zamia stricta (20140380, from 2014), with the remark “Accepted name: Zamia angustifolia”, which contradicts The World List of Cycads; conversely, its 13 accessions of 2010 and 2011 listed under Zamia angustifolia carry the remark “Accepted name: Zamia stricta”. These notes should be read with caution: the catalogue does not allow the identity of the plants under either name to be settled. Montgomery also declares the species to BGCI (catalogue and BGCI queried on 25 October 2026).
Australia: no record in BGCI or in the online catalogues of Australian gardens.
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 at the Palmengarten in Frankfurt (Germany).

Propagation

No data specific to the species. Like all Zamia, it has separate male and female plants and is propagated from fresh seed, after pollination, usually by hand in cultivation. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4, but should come from cultivated plants of legal origin.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species has been documented. For the Caribbean zamias, Cycadales.eu stresses the risk of root rot in cold, sodden compost, which a very mineral mix and reduced winter watering help to avoid; scale insects are, as in all cycads, the commonest pest in cultivation.

Cold hardiness

There is no measurement of the cold tolerance of Zamia stricta. The only pointer is Cycadales.eu’s statement for the Caribbean zamias as a whole, which “all tolerate temperatures close to zero”; only Zamia integrifolia is credited with tolerating frost, with foliage damage from −5 °C (23 °F).

Mediterranean and European experience

No in-ground cultivation has been reported in France or Italy, and no dated frost episode concerns this species. For comparison only, and without transferring the result to this species: at the Jardin zoologique tropical in La Londe-les-Maures, in the Var (southern France), a Zamia integrifolia from Florida, a species of the same complex, survived −7 °C (19.4 °F) in February 2012, with damage to its foliage. This Mediterranean observation shows what a related coontie endured, not what Zamia stricta, a plant from another region that has never been tested in cold, can withstand.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold record has been published. Trebrown, a British nursery, gives it USDA zone 9b: a commercial rating, not a measured result. In the UK it should be grown in a pot and kept frost-free under glass in winter; in frost-free parts of Florida, California or Australia, outdoor planting could be tried, following the advice for the Caribbean group.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity study specific to Zamia stricta has been published. The risk is, however, documented in the genus and in other cycads: Zamia contain toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived, and the ASPCA cites for Zamia furfuracea cycasin and BMAA, a neurotoxic amino acid, 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 use specific to Zamia stricta is documented. At genus level, the Flora de la República de Cuba reports, after Roig (1963), that in parts of central and eastern Cuba starch is extracted from the underground stem to feed young children, and that it is also used as rat poison; it does not say which species are involved. Such uses must not be copied: cycads are poisonous.

Frequently asked questions

What does “stricta” mean?

“Very straight”, from the Latin strictus. Miquel used it for the thin, stiff, upright leaves, with their bristling look.

Where does it come from?

From eastern Cuba, in Santiago de Cuba province. The plant described in 1851 was grown in Amsterdam; the herbarium gives it as originating from Cuba, and the 2003 flora places it on the Santa María de Loreto plateau.

Is it the same species as Zamia angustifolia?

No, in the current classification. The two were long merged, but the Cuban flora and The World List of Cycads keep them apart: Zamia angustifolia has about 60 leaflets on each side and cones under 6 cm, Zamia stricta 7 to 30 leaflets and larger cones.

How can I tell it from Zamia integrifolia?

By the width of the leaflets and the shape of the female cone. Zamia stricta has leaflets about 2 mm wide and a female cone with a conical point; Zamia integrifolia has leaflets about 5 mm wide and a truncated female cone.

How big does it get?

Its leaves are 40 to 140 cm long according to the Cuban flora, on a trunk about 6 cm across. The Amsterdam plant described in 1851 was much smaller, with leaflets of about 8 to 10 cm.

Is it endangered?

Yes. The IUCN rates it Vulnerable (2022) under criterion D2, which concerns species known from a very small area or very few localities.

Is it hardy?

Not reliably. No cold measurement exists for the species; a specialist nursery says its Caribbean group tolerates temperatures close to freezing, so outside frost-free areas it should be kept under cover in winter.

Is it poisonous?

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

Sources

Reference sites

The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), Zamia stricta: https://cycadlist.org/scientific_name/558 — authors, original publication, type, range, IUCN status and criterion, etymology, synonyms, history of the name. Checklist of the IUCN Cycad Specialist Group, reliable; reread on 25 October 2026.
The World List of Cycads, original description of Zamia stricta (PDF): https://cycadlist.org/storage/proto/Zamia_stricta.pdf — Miquel’s Latin description (1851): dimensions, leaf appearance, cultivation in Amsterdam. Primary literature; read.
Botanic Garden Berlin, Flora de la República de Cuba, fascicle 8(4), Zamiaceae (González Géigel, 2003, online edition 2024, in Spanish): https://www.bgbm.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/flora_de_la_republica_de_cuba_fasciculo_8-4_zamiaceae.pdf — description, key to the Cuban zamias, range, habitat, type, common names, uses at genus level. National flora, reliable; full text read.
PubMed Central, Lindstrom et al. (2024), Annals of Botany: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11560380/ — sample from Santiago de Cuba province, Caribbean clade I, age of its diversification. Peer-reviewed article; relevant passages read.
GBIF, Zamia stricta: https://www.gbif.org/species/5284140 — accepted name and current IUCN Red List category (VU). Reference data infrastructure; queried through its API on 25 October 2026.
Species+ (UNEP-WCMC), Zamia: https://speciesplus.net/species#/taxon_concepts/13387/legal — CITES Appendix II for the whole genus since 4 February 1977, annotation #4, Annex B in the European Union. Official CITES and EU database; queried on 3 October 2026.
Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/1383: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202601383 — annexes to Regulation (EC) No 338/97 in force since 29 June 2026. Official text.
Montgomery Botanical Center, online catalogue of living collections (BG-BASE): https://websites.rbge.org.uk/cgi-bin/nph-readbtree.pl/dataset=CYCADS/filename=n132_cyc/firstval=1?ETI=zamia%20stricta* — one accession under Zamia stricta (20140380) and 13 under Zamia angustifolia, with contradictory “accepted name” remarks. Catalogue kept by the garden; queried on 25 October 2026.
BGCI PlantSearch, Zamia stricta: https://plantsearch.bgci.org/ — two declaring gardens (Montgomery, Palmengarten Frankfurt). Global database of botanic garden collections; a declaration does not prove that the plant is still alive; queried through its API on 25 October 2026.
Cycadales.eu (Simon Lavaud), Comment cultiver les Zamia en climat tempéré (6 January 2023, updated 27 May 2023, in French): https://cycadales.eu/comment-cultiver-les-zamia-en-climat-tempere/ — Zamia stricta in the Caribbean group, conditions advised for the group, cold tolerance of the group. Specialist nursery: advice from experience for a group of species; reread on 25 October 2026.
Trebrown Nurseries, Zamia stricta: https://www.trebrown.com/plant_info.php?species=Zamia+stricta — USDA zone 9b, a commercial rating. British nursery; indicative value; consulted on 25 October 2026.
ASPCA Animal Poison Control, Cardboard Cycad: https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/aspca-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/cardboard-cycad — toxicity of Zamia furfuracea to dogs, cats and horses. Veterinary poison centre, reliable; genus-level data.

Bibliography

Miquel, F.A.W. (1851). Cycadeae quaedam americanae, partim novae. Nieuwe Verhandelingen der Eerste Klasse van het Koninklijk-Nederlandsch Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten te Amsterdam, series 3, 4: 183. [Original description; read in the copy published by The World List of Cycads.]
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, Botanic Garden Berlin, 2024. https://doi.org/10.3372/frc.8.4 [National flora: description, key, range, common names; 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.]
Stevenson, D.W. (1987). Again the West Indian zamias. Fairchild Tropical Garden Bulletin 42(3): 23–27. [Treatment of Zamia stricta as a synonym of Zamia angustifolia; cited by The World List of Cycads; not consulted.]
Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Zamia stricta. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T178859A69836807. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T178859A69836807.en [IUCN assessment; reference checked on Crossref, category confirmed by GBIF; the Red List page could not be consulted.]
Stevenson, D.W. (2010). Zamia stricta. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T178859A7629516. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T178859A7629516.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.]