Etymology: Greek, micros small, strobilus, a pinecone, from the small cones. Historical notes: Described by Mexican botanist Andrew Vovides and American botanist John D. Rees in 1983. Distinguishing features: Broad thin leaflets and small cones. Distribution and habitat: Known only from a single mountain in the Sierra Madre Oriental in San Luis Potosi state, Mexico. Plants occur at about 850 m alt in a transitional woodland between mixed deciduous cloud forest and oak woods on limestone. Conservation status: Threatened. 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants category E.
Description:
Plants acaulescent; stem 25 cm long, stem 10 cm diam; persistent leaf bases light, appressed. Leaves 2-4 in crown. New growth emerging bronze, red or chocolate brown. Leaves light or bright green, highly glossy or semiglossy, 50-70 cm long, flat (not keeled) in section, with 20-30 leaflets; vernation straight; rachis not or slightly spirally twisted; petiole 10-25 cm long, armed with prickles. Leaflets not clustered, lanceolate or ovate, asymmetric, broadest above middle, not falcate, weakly discolorous, thick or leathery; margins flat; median leaflets 15-18 cm long, 28-32 mm wide. Pollen cones yellow-green, fusiform-cylindrical, 15-17 cm long, 2-2.3 cm diam.; peduncle 4-5 cm long; microsporophyll lamina 5-7 mm long, 4-5 mm wide. Seed cones green or brown, ovoid-cylindrical, 5-6 cm long, 4-4.5 cm diam.; peduncle 4-6 cm long; megasporophyll 12-13 mm long, with an expanded peltate apex 17-21 mm wide, with two horns 2 mm long. Seeds ovoid, 18-19 mm long, 12-14 mm wide; sarcotesta white, aging to
brown.
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