  Ceratozamia range map (1).
| Ceratozamia robusta Miquel 1847Common NamesTaxonomic notesSyn: C. mexicana var. robusta (Miq.) Dyer 1883 (2). "[D]escribed in 1847 from plants cultivated in Europe and originating from somewhere in Mexico. Since none of the original type specimens could be located a new type was chosen in 1986 from material collected in Chiapas" (1).Description"A medium to large cycad which in nature develops a trunk to 2 m tall and 30 cm across. Young leaves pale green. Mature leaves eight to thirty per plant, 1.5-3 m long, light green, smooth, glabrous; petiole 20-60 cm long, swollen and woolly at the base, with numerous, stout prickles; leaflets 100-200 on each leaf, 20-30 cm × 2-5 cm, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, falcate, light green above, paler beneath, thin-textured to almost papery, apex acute, the margins rolled back. Male cones 30-50 cm × 10-14 cm, cylindrical, grey-brown; sporophylls with two tiny homs; peduncle about 10 cm long, woolly. Female cones 30-50 cm × 10-14 cm, cylindrical, grey; sporophylls with two prominent stout horns; peduncle about 15 cm long, woolly. Seeds about 2.5 cm × 2 cm, ovoid, smooth."C. robusta is the most vigorous and largest species in the genus. It has been included with C. mexicana by some authorities but is much more vigorous with a larger trunk, longer leaves and cones and acute tips on the leaflets. Plants from the forests of Belize and Guatemala are the largest of all and often have crowns of relatively lax leaves. Those from Veracruz are smaller and less vigorous than other variants and those from Chiapas fall somewhere in between" (1). RangeBelize, Guatemala and Mexico: Oaxaca & Veracruz. Found in the understory of tropical rainforests. It has the widest distribution of any species of Ceratozamia (1).Big TreeOldestDendrochronologyEthnobotanyGrown as an ornamental (1).ObservationsRemarksCitations(1) Jones 1993.(2) Vovides et al. 1983. |
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