Species
+

Zamioculcas zamiifolia (G.Lodd.) Engl.

ZZ Plant, Zanzibar gem, zeezee plant

Climate known 30 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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

Zamioculcas is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, containing the single species Zamioculcas zamiifolia. It is a tropical herbaceous perennial plant, and is native to eastern Africa, including Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Its common names include Zanzibar gem, Zuzu plant, emerald palm, ZZ plant, aroid palm and eternity plant. It is commonly grown as a houseplant, mainly because it has attractive glossy foliage and is easy to care for. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Zamioculcas”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Zamioculcas

Zamioculcas is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, containing the single species Zamioculcas zamiifolia. It is a tropical herbaceous perennial plant, and is native to eastern Africa, including Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Its common names include Zanzibar gem, Zuzu plant, emerald palm, ZZ plant, aroid palm and eternity plant. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Zamioculcas”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araceae
Described by
(G.Lodd.) Engl.
Native to
Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi +3
Wild records
85 in range· 31 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
939mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 131 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–39DLI
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 tropical foliage plant by the genus Zamioculcas, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (November to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 939 mm a year, wettest February at 131 mm, driest July at 29 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 11.7 °C habitat night).
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 Caladium zamiifolium G.Lodd.; Zamioculcas lanceolata Peter; Zamioculcas loddigesii Schott.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Zamioculcas, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

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

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 (675 mm of 939 mm) falls in November to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.8 °C against a yearly mean of 22.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

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 939 mm a year, wettest February at 131 mm, driest July at 29 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

939 mm a year at the habitat, 675 mm of it November to April. Wettest month February at 131 mm, driest July at 29 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 763 mm to 1456 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 22 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 39 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 20, 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 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 11.7 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 11.7 °C, the absolute minimum 7.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.0 °C in July (across the envelope cells 12.0 °C to 22.8 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 11.7 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Zamioculcas, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 63% 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 23 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 16 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 939 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 67 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°38.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–39RH 59–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 67 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 °C28 / 27–3128 / 27–3128 / 27–3026 / 26–2925 / 24–2823 / 22–2723 / 22–2624 / 23–2726 / 24–2926 / 24–2927 / 25–3028 / 27–30
Night °C23 / 20–2623 / 20–2622 / 19–2621 / 17–2519 / 15–2417 / 12–2416 / 12–2317 / 13–2318 / 15–2319 / 17–2421 / 19–2522 / 20–25
Rain mm127 / 47–254131 / 36–223114 / 80–19378 / 53–30951 / 28–23837 / 16–8029 / 13–5736 / 16–5336 / 20–6675 / 49–109116 / 90–133109 / 90–231
DLI39 / 37–4338 / 35–4234 / 32–4029 / 27–3425 / 23–3122 / 20–3123 / 21–3228 / 25–3533 / 30–3936 / 31–4138 / 34–4139 / 37–42
RH %62 / 61–6662 / 61–6663 / 61–6662 / 60–6761 / 59–6559 / 57–6359 / 57–6259 / 56–6360 / 56–6361 / 58–6462 / 60–6563 / 60–66

Each figure is the median across the 67 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 2319:4251 (-25.975, 32.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.2 °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 67 distinct grid cells holding the 84 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2319:4251 (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 -26.00_32.500, lapse-corrected -36 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 28 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.
NativeKenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, KwaZulu-Natal
Kew's description“perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-27.375, 32.375 · in the densest population, 42 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 85 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 31 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 52 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays 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 85 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Zamioculcas zamiifoliaZamioculcas zamiifoliaZamioculcas zamiifoliaZamioculcas zamiifoliaZamioculcas zamiifoliaZamioculcas zamiifoliaZamioculcas zamiifoliaZamioculcas zamiifolia

Photographs: (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); no rights reserved · CC0 (7).

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 Zamioculcas zamiifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Phytoremediation of BTEX from Indoor Air by Zamioculcas zamiifolia
Wararat Sriprapat, Paitip Thiravetyan (2013) · Water Air & Soil Pollution
Crassulacean acid metabolism in the ZZ plant, Zamioculcas zamiifolia (Araceae)
Joseph A. M. Holtum, Klaus Winter, Mark A. Weeks, Timothy R. Sexton (2007) · American Journal of Botany
Factors affecting xylene-contaminated air removal by the ornamental plant Zamioculcas zamiifolia
Wararat Sriprapat, Phattara Boraphech, Paitip Thiravetyan (2013) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Comparison of Chloroplast Genomes among Species of Unisexual and Bisexual Clades of the Monocot Family Araceae
Abdullah Abdullah, Claudia L. Henriquez, Furrukh Mehmood, Iram Shahzadi (2020) · Plants
Building a Barrier: The Influence of Different Wax Fractions on the Water Transpiration Barrier of Leaf Cuticles
Pascal Seufert, Simona Staiger, Katja Arand, Amauri Bueno (2022) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Potted plants can remove the pollutant nitrogen dioxide indoors
Curtis Gubb, Tijana Blanuša, Alistair Griffiths, Christian Pfrang (2022) · Air Quality Atmosphere & Health
Enhancing mixed toluene and formaldehyde pollutant removal by Zamioculcas zamiifolia combined with Sansevieria trifasciata and its CO2 emission
Haseeb Ullah, Chairat Treesubsuntorn, Paitip Thiravetyan (2020) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Contribution of Bacillus cereus ERBP in ozone detoxification by Zamioculcas zamiifolia plants: Effect of ascorbate peroxidase, catalase and total flavonoid contents for ozone detoxification
Piyatida Pheomphun, Chairat Treesubsuntorn, P. Jitareerat, Paitip Thiravetyan (2019) · Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

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.

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 39 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.