31 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr, under 5 mm of rain
- May
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Zamia paucijuga is a species of plant in the cycad family Zamiaceae.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Zamia paucijuga", CC BY-SA 4.0.
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.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Zamia", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,174 mm of 1,421 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.5 °C against a yearly mean of 23.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.
Rain
1,421 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,174 mm of it June to September. Wettest month September at 333 mm, driest month April at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,121 mm to 1,977 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,455 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,421 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.5 °C, the absolute minimum 9.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.1 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range 12.2 °C to 22.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.9 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. 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.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +598 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 26 °C in Jan to 30 °C in May; mean nightly low from 16 °C in Jan, Feb and Mar to 22 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 3 months in a row that tie for it. 1,421 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 48 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 9.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 26 / 23–29 | 27 / 23–29 | 28 / 24–30 | 29 / 25–32 | 30 / 26–32 | 29 / 27–30 | 28 / 26–29 | 28 / 26–29 | 27 / 25–29 | 27 / 25–29 | 27 / 25–29 | 27 / 24–29 |
| Night °C | 16 / 12–22 | 16 / 12–22 | 16 / 13–22 | 18 / 15–23 | 19 / 17–24 | 21 / 18–25 | 21 / 18–25 | 22 / 18–25 | 21 / 18–25 | 21 / 17–24 | 19 / 15–24 | 17 / 13–23 |
| Rain mm | 34 / 11–48 | 14 / 8–21 | 5 / 2–15 | 3 / 1–30 | 15 / 9–117 | 208 / 150–311 | 312 / 187–437 | 321 / 229–440 | 333 / 270–446 | 135 / 110–170 | 25 / 17–32 | 16 / 7–27 |
| DLI | 31 / 29–35 | 37 / 35–39 | 43 / 42–45 | 47 / 45–48 | 47 / 42–48 | 36 / 33–37 | 33 / 31–36 | 33 / 31–35 | 29 / 28–31 | 31 / 30–33 | 32 / 30–33 | 30 / 27–33 |
| RH % | 58 / 54–64 | 57 / 53–63 | 57 / 52–61 | 56 / 51–61 | 59 / 55–63 | 67 / 64–69 | 68 / 65–71 | 69 / 66–72 | 70 / 68–73 | 68 / 64–71 | 63 / 59–66 | 60 / 56–64 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Juan Cruzado Cortés, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sinead Gómez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Sapium macrocarpum Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, nasua
Cryosophila nana Arecaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández
Ipomoea perpartita Convolvulaceae Photo: CC BY, Aaron Liston
Philodendron dressleri Araceae Photo: CC BY, Archer Silverman
Epidendrum cilioccidentale Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedOther Zamia 37 in the reference
Zamia angustifolia Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan Shebs
Zamia cunaria Zamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Kai Squires Zamia elegantissima Zamiaceae Zamia encephalartoides Cycad 
Zamia erosa Zamia Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt Miller
Zamia fairchildiana Zamiaceae Photo: CC BY, chrisdt
Zamia fischeri Zamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Juan Cruzado Cortés
Zamia furfuracea Cardboard palm Photo: CC BY, Nash Turley Zamia herrerae Cycad 
Zamia huilensis Zamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Pompeya Reserva Natural Zamia imperialis Zamiaceae 
Zamia incognita Zamiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 38 ›Names & registers
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.50_-95.000, lapse-corrected +598 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulescommons answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.