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Zamia pumila

 
Zamia Pumila

 
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Zamia pumila
 
 
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Zamia pumila, or Coontie, is a small, tough, woody cycad
Cycad

File:Cycad cone.jpgCycads are a group of seed plants characterized by a large crown of compound Leaf and a stout trunk . They are evergreen, gymnospermous, dioecious plants having large pinnately compound leaves....
 of the West Indies and Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
. Zamia pumila was the first species described for the genus and hence is the type species
Type species

In taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus . It is an individual specimen that fixes the name of a genus . Two different definitions are used interchangeably, in a general term and a botanical term....
 for the genus Zamia and the family Zamiaceae.

This cycad contains reddish seed cones
Conifer cone

A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the plant sexuality structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds....
 with a distinct acuminate tip. The leaves are 60-120 cm (2-4 feet) long, with 5-30 pairs of leaflets (pinnae).






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Zamia pumila, or Coontie, is a small, tough, woody cycad
Cycad

File:Cycad cone.jpgCycads are a group of seed plants characterized by a large crown of compound Leaf and a stout trunk . They are evergreen, gymnospermous, dioecious plants having large pinnately compound leaves....
 of the West Indies and Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
. Zamia pumila was the first species described for the genus and hence is the type species
Type species

In taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus . It is an individual specimen that fixes the name of a genus . Two different definitions are used interchangeably, in a general term and a botanical term....
 for the genus Zamia and the family Zamiaceae.

This cycad contains reddish seed cones
Conifer cone

A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the plant sexuality structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds....
 with a distinct acuminate tip. The leaves are 60-120 cm (2-4 feet) long, with 5-30 pairs of leaflets (pinnae). Each leaflet is linear to lanceolate or oblong-obovate, 8-25 cm long and 0.5-2 cm broad, with distinct teeth at the tip. They are often revolute, with prickly petioles. It is similar in many respects to Zamia furfuracea
Zamia furfuracea

Zamia furfuracea is a cycad native to southeastern Veracruz state in eastern Mexico. Although not a palmtree , its growth habit is superficially similar to a palm; therefore it is commonly known as "Cardboard Palm" but the alternate name Cardboard Cycad is preferrable....
, but with slightly narrower leaflets, and to Zamia integrifolia
Zamia integrifolia

Zamia integrifolia is a small, tough, woody cycad native to the southeast United States , the Bahamas and the Caribbean south to Grand Cayman and Puerto Rico ....
, which differs in the more commonly entire (untoothed or only slightly so) leaflets.

This is a low-growing plant, with trunk that grows to 3-25 cm high and diameter, but is often subterranean. Over time, it forms a multi-branched cluster, with a large, tuberous root system, which is actually an extension of the above-ground stems.

Like other cycads, Zamia pumila is dioecious
Dioecious

Dioecious - from Greek language for "two households" - refers to species of seed-bearing plants having separate male and female plants. That is, no individual plant of the species produces both microspores and megaspores; individual plants are either male or female ....
, having male or female plants. The male cones are cylindrical, growing to 3-15 cm long; they are often clustered. The female cones are elongate-ovoid and grow to 6-15 cm long and 4-6 cm in diameter. Pollination
Pollination

Pollination in flowering plants and gymnosperms is the process that transfers pollen, which contain the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself....
 is by certain insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s, namely the belid
Belidae

Belidae is a family of weevils, called belids or primitive weevils because they have straight antennae, unlike the "true weevils" or Curculionidae which have elbowed antennae....
 weevil
Weevil

A weevil is any beetle from the Curculionidae superfamily. They are usually small, less than 6 mm , and Herbivore. Due to the shape of their heads, weevils are commonly known as snout beetles....
 Rhopalotria slossoni.

Zamia pumila inhabits a variety of habitats with well-drained sands or sandy loam
Loam

Loam is soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even concentration , considered ideal for gardening and agricultural uses. Loam soils generally contain more nutrients and humus than sandy soils, have better infiltration and drainage than silty soils, and are easier to tillage than clay soils....
 soils. It prefers filtered sunlight to partial shade. It is now confined to central Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
 and the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are List of divided islands, Saint Martin being the other....
; populations formerly also occurred in southern Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
 and Haiti
Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
, but have become extinct there due to intensive land use.

This plant is poison
Poison

In the context of biology, poisons are Chemical substance that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ous, producing a toxin called cycasin that affects the gastrointestinal tract
Gastrointestinal tract

The digestive tract is the system of Organ s within multicellular animals that takes in food, digestion it to extract energy and nutrients, and expels the remaining waste....
 and nervous system
Nervous system

The nervous system is a Neural network of specialized cells that communicate information about an animal's surroundings and itself. It processes this information and causes reactions in other parts of the body....
. The toxin can however be removed by careful leaching, and the roots and half-buried stems were used by Native American people for their yield of a starch
Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
, formerly known as Florida arrowroot
Florida arrowroot

Florida arrowroot was the commercial name of an edible starch extracted from Zamia integrifolia , a small cycad native to North America....
. The plant is also fed upon by various insects, including the butterfly Eumaeus atala
Eumaeus atala

The Atala, Eumaeus atala, is a small colorful butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in southeastern Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba....
, which sequesters the toxin inside its body for use in its own defense.

Controversy has long existed over the classification and circumscription of Zamia in the southeastern United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 and West Indies. At one extreme, Eckenwalder (1980) included all these plants in a single broadly defined species, Z. pumila. Most other botanists have recognized several more narrowly defined species. The Flora of North America treats the American plants as Z. integrifolia, although some references continue to refer to these populations as Z. pumila.