Montgomery Botanist and Colleagues Shed Light on Two Poorly Known Zamia Species from Colombia

Photo of a Zamia montana leafMBC’s Cycad Biologist, Michael Calonje, along with colleagues Gustavo Morales, Cristina López-Gallego, and Francisco Javier Roldán studied wild populations of Zamia in the cool cloudforests of Antioquia and Risaralda, Colombia. The populations studied represented two previously described species which were subsequently synonymized based on similarities observed in sterile herbarium specimens.

The fieldwork, supported in part by a Tinker Foundation grant in support of Michael’s Dissertation work at Florida International University, allowed the team to determine that these two species were quite distinct and deserved species recognition, to provide updated descriptions for both species, and to determine their conservation status for the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species.

The team’s findings were presented in a recent issue of Phytotaxa.