''Ceratozamia whitelockiana'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the family

Zamiaceae The Zamiaceae are a family of cycads that are superficially palm or fern-like. They are divided into two subfamilies with eight genera and about 150 species in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Australia and North and South America. ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, where it is known only from Metates and Chiapan in

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

state. Only two subpopulations have been found, with a total population of about 2200 individuals. The habitat is threatened by conversion to plantations using

slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...

techniques. This

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...

has a cylindrical trunk about 20 to 30 centimeters long. The leaves are up to 2.5 meters in length and have 30 to 40 pairs of leaflets. The plant was named for cycad expert Loran Whitelock.Chemnick, J., & Gregory, T. J. (1995)
A new species of ''Ceratozamia'' (Zamiaceae) from Oaxaca, Mexico with comments on distribution, habitat, and relationships.
''Phytologia'' 79(1), 51-57.

References

whitelockiana Endemic flora of Mexico Flora of Oaxaca Endangered plants Endangered biota of Mexico Plants described in 1995 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Flora of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca {{Cycad-stub