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Photo Dennis Stevenson
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The Cycad Pages
| Zamia integrifolia
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- Zamia integrifolia L. f., "in Aiton, Hortus Kew. 3: 477-479" (1789).
- "TYPE: cult. Kew ex Florida, Aiton s.n. (holo K)."
- [Zamia integrifolia A. Gray ex A. DC., Prodr. 16(2): 544 (1868), nom. nud.]
- [Zamia integrifolia sensu Rich., "Comm. Bot. Conif. Cycad.: 191, t. 27" (1826), nom. nud.]
Etymology:
Zamia integrifolia is actually a double misnomer because
'integrifolia' literally means entire leaves but was intended to
refer to the leaflets which are not entire but have small callous
teeth in the upper fourth.
Historical notes:
Zamia integrifolia is more commonly labeled as Z. floridana
in the older literature particularly that concerning anatomy,
morphology and life cycles. This is mainly because the plants that
were studied came from Florida.
Distinguishing features:
Leaflets with very small obscure callous bumps near the tips and
unusually large seed cones for the stature of the plant.
Distribution and habitat:
Zamia integrifolia is known from extreme southeastern Georgia
southward through peninsular Florida (including the Florida Keys)
and sporadically in the Bahamas where it occurs on Andros, Grand Bahama,
Great Abaco, Long, and New Providence Islands. It has been collected
in western Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and south-central Puerto Rico
where it may now be extinct. Habitats vary from open coastal areas
and sand dunes to pinelands and closed canopy oak hammocks to tropical
forest. This cycad is most commonly found in soil over limestone and
in sand near sea level or in pinelands subjected to periodic wildfires.
Conservation status:
Zamia integrifolia is fairly common throughout its range
except in south-central Puerto Rico where it is extinct as a result
of over development early in the twentieth century. Not listed in the
1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants
because it is not considered threatened.
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Photo Dennis Stevenson
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Description:
Stems subterranean and tuberous, 3-10 [25] cm in diameter,
often dichotomously branched, wrinkled.
Cataphylls from 1-2 cm long, sheathing at first, with a pair
of inconspicuous stipules.
Leaves 2-15; petioles with stipules, smooth; rachis smooth,
bearing 5-30 pairs of leaflets.
Leaflets oblong, rounded apically, with 10-15 indistinct
teeth in upper fourth, median ones 8-25 cm long and 0.5-2 cm wide.
Pollen cones 1-30, pedunculate, dark reddish brown,
cylindrical to ovoid-cylindrical, apex acute, 3-15 cm long and
0.8-2 cm in diameter.
Seed cones 1-5, pedunculate, dark reddish brown sometimes
becoming gray when mature, cylindrical to slightly ovoid with blunt
or slightly acute apex, 6-15 cm long and 4-6 cm in diam.
Seeds with a red to orange-red, ovoid, 1-2 cm long.
2n = 16
The Cycad Pages
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© 1998-2012 Royal Botanic Gardens Sy
dney
Written and maintained by Ken Hill 1998-2010
Maintained by Leonie Stanberg and Dennis Stevenson 2010-2012
This site is currently not being maintained
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