Etymology: Named for the area in Panama where it is endemic. Historical notes: Distinguishing features: In many aspects Zamia ipetiensis is most similar to Z. cunaria. These include general growth habitat, solitary leaf production, leaf size and shape, leaflet size and texture, wine red seed cones, and a few microsporangia on the adaxial surface of the microsporophylls. However, Z. ipetiensis is most easily distinguished from Z. cunaria by its elongate but broadly obovate leaflets. Zamia montana has a similar leaflet shape but its leaflets are deeply grooved adaxially. Distribution and habitat: Zamia ipetiensis is endemic to a small area in Panama where it occurs from 100-500 m in primary and secondary rain forest and grows in clay soils. Conservation: Zamia ipetiensis is a very narrow endemic known from only two populations. It is extremely threatened in the wild because of habitat destruction for agriculture and is present only because local people keep it at the margins of their gardens. 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants Category V,II,V. Description:
Stem subterranean, subglobose, to 10 cm diam. Cataphylls ovate, 3-4 cm long, 4-5 cm wide. Leaves 1-3, 0.5-1.5 m long; petiole 15-50 cm long, sparsely to densely prickled; rachis with 3-12 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets narrowly to broadly oblanceolate, cuneate basally, acuminate apically, margins finely serrulate in the tip, the larger median ones 20-40 cm long, 5-8 cm wide. Pollen cones cream to tan, cylindrical to ovoid-cylindrical, 4-6 cm long, 1-1.5 cm diam.; peduncle 2-4 cm long. Microsporophylls with sterile tip composed of six steeply inclined facets surrounding a centrally depressed terminal facet, sporangia present on both the adaxial and abaxial surfaces of the fertile region. Seed cones wine red to dark red-brown, cylindrical to ovoid-cylindrical, 15-20 cm long, 5-7 cm diam. Seeds pink to light-red, 1.5-2 cm long, 0.5-0.8 cm diam. 2n = 23 (Caputo et al. Amer. J. Bot. 83: 1513-1520. 1996).
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