Zamia (zamia)

[NL. (Linnæus, 1767), IMG:content-2730.png:[blocks in formation] Female Plant of Zamia integrifolia (the waved line indicates the surface of the ground). a, scale with one seed; 6, the young female flower. soil, pinnate leaves, and naked truncate strobile-scales, both the male and female cones being oblong and cylindrical and their scales similar. There are about 30 species, natives of tropical and subtropical North America. They produce a simple, lobed or branching caudex, sometimes a low trunk, often covered with scars. The stems increase in height by the yearly development of a crown of stiff fern-like leaves with firm rigid segments which are entire or serrate, parallel-nerved, and jointed at the broad base. Z. integrifolia (Z. pumila ), with a short globular or oblong, chiefly subterranean stem, occurs in low grounds in southern Florida, and is the only cycad found within the United States; it yields a starch known as Florida arrowroot; the plant is called coontie (which see). Z. furfur ace a and the preceding are known as wild sago in Jamaica. From these and other dwarf species an excellent arrowroot is made in the Bahamas and elsewhere in the West Indies. Many species cultivated under gla as zamia are now cla ed as Encephalartos, and Z. spiral is as Macrozamia. 2. [ l. c.] A plant of this genus.