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Zamia| Genus of fernlike cycads in the fern-palm family Cycadaceae, mostly found in tropical America and the West Indies. They resemble palm trees with their stout trunks crowned with fronds. The roots are sometimes ground into flour for cooking. The Florida arrowroot Z. integrifolia grows in Florida and the West Indies; its roots are a source of starch but may be poisonous until cooked. |
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| In the not very thick forest steppes, which covered lower parts of mountains, there were mainly pines, palms and numerous species of oak, both evergreen and with falling leaves; other trees grew there as well: beeches, chestnuts, maples, cycads from the genus Zamia ; shrubs, such as the magnolia, holly and some Laurel family ( Lauraceae ) plants; grasses dominated the undergrowth. William Bartram discovered the evolutionary, primitive Zamia palm, today called, Zamia pumila growing near Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1773, reporting that it "grows in the open pine forests in tufts or clumps, a large conical strobile disclosing its large coral red fruit, which appears singularly beautiful amidst the deep green fern-like pinnated leaves. Z A^light^nap, inside^view: zamias, zibelines, zany |