''Zamia lacandona'' 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 ...
to
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 occurs only in the state of
Chiapas
Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...
, near
Palenque and
Agua Azul.
This plant grows 15 to 60 centimeters tall from an underground
caudex
A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695
In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...
. It usually produces a single leaf up to 100 centimeters long by 80 wide. The leaf has up to 12 pairs of leaflets. The species is named for its native rainforest habitat, the
Lacandon Jungle, the ''Selva Lacandona''.
[Schutzman, B., & Vovides, A. P. (1998)]
A new ''Zamia'' (Zamiaceae, Cycadales) from eastern Chiapas, Mexico.
''Novon'', 441-446.
This species is threatened by
slash-and-burn agriculture. It can sometimes regenerate in degraded habitat that has been burned and cleared, and can be seen growing in agricultural fields and on roadsides.
References
lacandona
Endemic flora of Mexico
Endangered plants
Plants described in 1998
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
{{Cycad-stub