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Zamiaceae HorianowCommon namesSago-palm family (2).Taxonomic notesSee (1). About 8 genera and 100 species, subdivided as follows:
DescriptionPlants 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).RangeAustralia (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 TreeOldestEthnobotanyRemarksCitations(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.
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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