Species
+

Zamia furfuracea L.f.

Cardboard Palm, cardboard cycad

Climate known 50 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Zamia furfuracea is a species of cycad endemic to southeastern Veracruz state in eastern Mexico.

Text from Wikipedia, “Zamia furfuracea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Zamia

Zamia is a genus of cycad of the family Zamiaceae, native to North America from the United States throughout the West Indies, Central America, and South America as far south as Bolivia. The genus is considered to be the most ecologically and morphologically diverse of the cycads, and is estimated to have originated about 68.3 million years ago.

Text from Wikipedia, “Zamia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Zamiaceae
Described by
L.f.
Native to
Mexico Gulf
Wild records
115 in range· 88 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2295mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 460 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Zamia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2295 mm a year, wettest September at 460 mm, driest March at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Palma pumila Mill.; Palmifolium furfuraceum (L.f.) Kuntze; Zamia crassifolia B.S.Williams; Zamia crassifolia B.S.Williams ex T.Moore & Mast.; Zamia crassifolia hort. and 13 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Zamia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1650 mm of 2295 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.8 °C against a yearly mean of 25.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2295 mm a year, wettest September at 460 mm, driest March at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2295 mm a year at the habitat, 1650 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 460 mm, driest March at 38 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1670 mm to 2826 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 18.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 18.2 °C, the absolute minimum 12.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 15.4 °C to 20.5 °C), warmest day 29.9 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Jan to 30 °C in May; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 25 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2295 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 49 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°34.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 23–43RH 64–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 49 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 22–2525 / 23–2627 / 25–2929 / 27–3130 / 28–3229 / 27–3129 / 27–3029 / 27–3028 / 26–2927 / 25–2826 / 24–2724 / 23–25
Night °C20 / 15–2120 / 16–2122 / 18–2224 / 20–2425 / 22–2625 / 22–2625 / 22–2525 / 22–2525 / 22–2524 / 20–2422 / 18–2321 / 16–21
Rain mm91 / 31–15372 / 21–11238 / 15–5841 / 22–7679 / 53–118226 / 207–334301 / 274–361331 / 304–379460 / 327–536332 / 173–410188 / 65–284136 / 35–240
DLI24 / 23–2529 / 28–3037 / 35–3842 / 40–4243 / 41–4337 / 37–3836 / 35–3835 / 34–3731 / 30–3329 / 28–3026 / 25–2723 / 22–24
RH %67 / 65–7067 / 64–6965 / 63–6764 / 62–6664 / 62–6766 / 65–6967 / 66–7167 / 65–7167 / 65–7066 / 63–6966 / 63–6966 / 64–70

Each figure is the median across the 49 grid cells holding the 84 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1424:1684 (18.775, -95.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 49 distinct grid cells holding the 84 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1424:1684 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.00_-95.625, lapse-corrected -9 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 16 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Gulf· introduced: Bangladesh, Cuba
Kew's description“subshrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker18.704, -95.186 · in the densest population, 112 records (97% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 115 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 88 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 481 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 31 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 115 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Zamia furfuraceaZamia furfuraceaZamia furfuraceaZamia furfuraceaZamia furfuraceaZamia furfuraceaZamia furfuraceaZamia furfuracea

Photographs: (c) NV Residencies, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Quinn, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Brandon Corder, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Josiah Londerée, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Obed Palagot Echavarria, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Zamia furfuracea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The Role of Beetles in the Pollination of Zamia furfuracea L. fil. (Zamiaceae)
Knut Norstog, Dennis Wm. Stevenson, Karl J. Niklas (1986) · Biotropica
Oscillatory Heat-Production in the Male Cones of Cycads
Hanna Skubatz, William Tang, B. J. D. Meeuse (1993) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Histological changes during maturation in male and female cones of the cycad Zamia furfuracea and their significance in relation to pollination biology
Andrew P. Vovides, Knut Norstog, Priscilla K. S. Fawcett, Mark W. Duncan (1993) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLLEN TUBE OF ZAMIA FURFURACEA (ZAMIACEAE) AND ITS EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS
Jung-Sun Choi, William E. Friedman (1991) · American Journal of Botany
Complex reproductive secretions occur in all extant gymnosperm lineages: a proteomic survey of gymnosperm pollination drops
Natalie Prior, Stefan A. Little, Ian Boyes, Patrick Griffith (2018) · Plant Reproduction
Fine-Scale Genetic Structure ofZamia furfuracea: Variation with Life-Cycle Stages
Pablo Octavio‐Aguilar, Lourdes Georgina Iglesias-Andreu, Francisco Gonzalez, Dulce María Galván‐Hernández (2016) · International Journal of Plant Sciences
Leaflets of Cycadaceae
M. Alice Lamb (1923) · Botanical Gazette
Leaf Gas-exchange Characteristics of Sixteen Cycad Species
Thomas E. Marler, Leah E. Willis (1997) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Zamia 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 49 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.