Zamia

Zamia fairchildiana

Zamia is a genus of cycads ( Cycadales ).

Features

The strains usually form underground tubers without pronounced woody tissue. Some species form an aboveground stem, which can be high 4 meters and more. Three species have a highly derived Growth: Zamia pseudoparasitica is an epiphyte on tree trunks and anchored with its roots. The remaining two, Zamia cremnophila and an undescribed species, growing on sandstone rocks holding firmly to the roots in small gaps. Species with above-ground stems throw the leaf bases and Cataphylle from you soon and have a naked epidermis. For species growing in the rain forest of the trunk is soon covered with epiphytes.

The leaves are simple pinnate, long or short, upright, horizontally or upside down and very variable. Developing leaves are green, bronze, red or purple. Petiole and rachis are unarmed or provided with sharp spines. The leaflets are stiff and leathery or soft and papery, cut the surface smooth, grooved or ribbed, shiny or matte, leaf margin entire, dentate or. Zamia variegata has variegated leaves.

The female cones are very different depending on the type. The size ranges from 7.5 cm to 46 cm. The color of the sarcotesta ranges from yellow to orange and pink to red. In most species there is no seed dormancy. The maturation of the journal takes 6 to 14 months, the growing seed force the Sporophylle apart. As long as immature, the sarcotesta is unremarkable. When the pin breaks, the seeds quickly finish the maturation and sarcotesta is colored and soft. The species are, so far as examined, all pollinated by insects ( entomophily ). The spread of the seeds is done possibly by birds and rodents.

Male cones are less variable than the female. They are small, grow and pass quickly. In some tropical species that many pin mature temporal succession, so that the time duration of the pollen production is still long.

The chromosome numbers be 2n = 16-18, 21-28.

Dissemination and locations

The genus Zamia occurs only on the American continent, but one of the few Palmfarngattungen on both sides of the equator. The northern limit of the distribution is in Georgia and Florida, the area extends over Mexico, the West Indies and Central America to South America to northern Chile, Bolivia and Brazil. The greatest diversity of species they reached in Panama, Colombia and Cuba.

Zamia has relative to locations the widest spectrum of all cycads. There are species in the rain forest, savannah, on stable coastal dunes, tidal marshes, and deserts, from sea level up to 2500 m above sea level.

Many species are due to their small area and the increasing land use at high risk.

Botanical history and systematics

The genus Zamia was first described by Linnaeus in 1763, the type species of Zamia pumila is. It forms with the genera Chigua and Microcyca the tribe Zamieae within the subfamily Zamioideae in the family Zamiaceae.

Whitelock cites 60 species:

  • Zamia acuminata
  • Zamia amazonum
  • Zamia amblyphyllidia
  • Zamia amplifolia
  • Zamia angustifolia
  • Zamia angustissima
  • Zamia boliviana
  • Zamia Chigua
  • Zamia cremnophila
  • Zamia cunaria
  • Zamia cupatiensis
  • Zamia disodon
  • Zamia dressleri
  • Zamia elegantissima
  • Zamia encephalartoides
  • Zamia fairchildiana L. D. Gómez, Origin: Costa Rica
  • . Zamia fischeri Miq, Origin: Mexico
  • Zamia furfuracea L. f, Origin: Mexico
  • Zamia gentryi
  • Zamia herrerae
  • Zamia hymenophyllidia
  • Zamia inermis
  • Zamia integrifolia
  • Zamia ipetiensis
  • Zamia jirijirimensis
  • Zamia kickxii
  • Zamia Lacandon
  • Zamia lawsoniana
  • Zamia lecointei
  • Zamia lindenii rule ex André, Origin: Ecuador
  • Zamia lindleyi
  • . Zamia loddigesii Miq, Origin: Mexico
  • Zamia lucayana
  • Zamia macrochiera
  • Zamia manicata
  • Zamia melanorrhachis
  • Zamia montana
  • Zamia muricata Willd, home. Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela
  • Zamia neurophyllidia
  • Zamia obliqua A. Brown, Origin: Colombia
  • Zamia paucijuga
  • Zamia poeppigiana
  • Zamia polymorpha
  • Zamia portoricensis
  • Zamia prasina
  • Zamia pseudoparasitica J. Yates, Origin: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
  • Zamia pumila L., Origin: Florida, West Indies
  • Zamia purpurea
  • Zamia pygmaea Sims ( syn.. Zamia pumila subsp pygmaea ( Sims ) Eckenw. ), Origin: Western Cuba
  • Zamia roezlii
  • . Zamia skinneri Warsz, Origin: Central America
  • Zamia soconuscensis
  • Zamia spartea
  • Zamia splendens
  • Zamia standleyi
  • Zamia tuerckheimii
  • Zamia ulei
  • Zamia urep
  • Zamia variegata
  • Zamia vasquezii
  • Zamia wallisii A. Brown, Origin: Colombia

Use

Zamia species are relatively rare compared to other cultivated cycad genera as ornamental plants. One reason is seen in their tropical distribution, in temperate latitudes it is almost removed in a glass house. Also in botanical gardens, even in the tropics, they are hardly cultivated.

Documents

  • Loran M. Whitelock: The Cycads. Timber Press, Portland, OR 2002, ISBN 0-88192-522-5, pp. 288 f
  • Walter Erhardt, Siegmund Seybold, Nils Boedeker, Erich Goetz: The big walleye. Encyclopedia of plant names. Volume 2: Types and varieties. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5406-7.
Epidermis (botany) Variegation
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