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Ceratozamia range map (1).

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Ceratozamia miqueliana (1).

Ceratozamia miqueliana H. Wendl. 1854


Common Names

Taxonomic notes

"Described in 1854 from Mexican plants of imprecise origin which were possibly cultivated in one or more botanic gardens in Europe. Since none of the original type material could be located a new type was designated in 1986 based on material collected at Veracruz, Mexico" (1).

Description

"A small to medium-sized cycad with a cylindrical trunk to 1 m tall (swollen at the base) and 20 cm across. Young leaves hairy and covered with a powdery bloom. Mature leaves five to nine in an erect crown, 0.8-1.8 m long, dark green, flat in cross-section, straight in profile or recurved near the apex, of uniform width throughout except at the apex; petiole 30-50 cm long, swollen at the base, with numerous prickles; leaflets ten to eighteen on each leaf, widely spaced, inserted at about 90° to the rhachis; median leaflets 22-29 cm × 4-6.5 cm, asymmetrically obovate to broadly oblanceolate, thin textured and almost papery, dark green, apex acuminate and strong asymmetrical. Male cones 12-15 cm × 3-4 cm, cylindrical; peduncle hairy. Female cones 8-10 cm × 5-6 cm, ovoid-cylindrical; peduncle hairy. Seed details lacking.

"In this species the leaflets are usually widely spaced; very rarely an individual leaf may have some clustered leaflets. C. miqueliana is closest to C. euryphyllidia but can be distinguished by its smaller, papery leaflets which lack the undulate margins" (1).

Range

Mexico: Veracruz, at elevations of 60-800 m with a disjunct population on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Habitat is cool, humid, semi-deciduous rainforests (1).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Grown as an ornamental (1).

Observations

Remarks

Named for Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel, a nineteenth century Professor of Botany at Utrecht and Leiden (1).

Citations

(1) Jones 1993.

[Ceratozamia] [Zamiaceae] [home]

This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2285/za/ce/miqueliana.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 6-Jan-1999

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