LON-CAPA Zamiaceae description

Zamiaceae Horianow

Common names

Sago-palm family (2).

Taxonomic notes

See (1). About 8 genera and 100 species, subdivided as follows:

Subfamily	Tribe	Subtribe	Genus
Encephalartoideae	Diooeae		Dioon
	Encephalarteae	Encephalartinae	Encephalartos
		Macrozamiinae	Macrozamia
		Macrozamiinae	Lepidozamia
Zamioideae	Ceratozamieae		Ceratozamia
	Zamieae	Microcycadinae	Microcycas
		Zamiinae	Zamia
		Zamiinae	Chigua

Description

Plants perennial, evergreen, dioecious. Stems subterranean with exposed apex or aboveground, fleshy, stout, cylindric, simple or irregularly branched. Roots with small secondary roots; coral-like roots developing at base of stem at or below soil surface. Leaves pinnately compound, spirally clustered at stem apex, leathery; leaflets entire, dentate or spinose, venation dichotomous or netted; resin canals absent. Cones axillary, appearing terminal, short-peduncled or sessile, disintegrating at maturity; sporophylls densely crowded, spirally arranged. Pollen cones soon shed, generally smaller and more numerous than seed cones; sporophylls bearing many crowded, small microsporangia (pollen sacs) adaxially; pollen spheric. Seed cones persisting a year or more, 1(2) per plant, nearly globose to ovoid, tapering sharply or blunt at apex; sporophylls peltate, thickened and laterally expanded distally, bearing 2(3) ovules. Seeds angular, inner coat hardened, outer coat fleshy, often brightly colored; cotyledons 2 (2).

Range

Australia (Chigua, Lepidozamia, Macrozamia), Neotropics (Georgia to Bolivia) (Ceratozamia, Dioon, Microcycas, Zamia) and subSaharan Africa (Encephalartos). All species occupy subtropical or tropical habitats, with precipitation regimes ranging from the semiarid to swamps or tropical rainforests (1).

Big Tree

Oldest

Ethnobotany

Remarks

Citations

(1) Jones 1993.

(2) Garrie P. Landry at the Flora of North America online.

See also:

The Virtual Cycad Encyclopedia.

A.L.P. de Candolle. 1868. Cycadaceae. In: A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. de Candolle, eds. 1823--1873. Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.... Paris etc. Vol. 16, part 2, pp. 522-547.

L.A.S. Johnson. 1959. The families of cycads and the Zamiaceae of Australia. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 84: 64-117.

R. Osborne, A. Salatino, M.L.F. Salatino, C.M. Sekiya, and M. Vasquez-Torres. 1993. Alkanes of foliar epicuticular waxes from five cycad genera in the Zamiaceae. Phytochemistry 33: 607-609.
Abstract: The n-alkane distribution patterns from 31 specimens in the meso-American cycad genera Ceratozamia, Dioon, Zamia and two Australian taxa, reported from GC analysis, complement a previously published investigation of the African genus, Encephalartos and complete a survey of the Zamiaceae. The significant proportions of n-alkane homologues with short ( lt n-C-25) carbon chains, the extended distribution range (n-C- 26 to n-C-33) and a general absence of prevalence of odd- over even-numbered homologues collectively provides evidence for a monophyletic origin of the Zamiaceae and distinguishes the cycads chemotaxonomically from other gymnosperms and from angiosperms. Exceptions to the general trend are seen in Dioon califanoi, which shows an angiosperm-like bias towards odd- numbered carbon alkanes, and to a lesser extent in two species of Ceratozamia and three of Zamia. Alkane distribution profiles do not allow any distinction between the genera of the Zamiaceae and show little species specificity.

J. Schuster. 1932. Cycadaceae. Vol. 99[IV,1], pp. l-168 in H.G.A. Engler, ed., 1900-1953. Berlin: Das Pflanzenreich.... .

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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/~earlecj/za/index.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.net
Last modified on 3-Jan-2000