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Nature Photography by Paul Rebmann
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Zamia pumila
COONTIE
FLORIDA ARROWROOT
Synonym: Zamia floridana
Florida native
There are two varieties of coontie in Florida. The east coast shown here and the narrow-leaf form found in the western and southern peninsula. Coontie is also found in the southeastern coastal counties of Georgia, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
Although poisonous, coontie was an important food source for the Seminoles and earlier Florida native tribes. Properly processed, the roots produced an edible flour -like starch. In the 1800's starch factories in South Florida contributed to the decline of the slow growing plant.
Zamia pumila is a member of the Zamiaceae - Sago-palm family.
Florida Wildflowers in Their Natural Communities
Walter Kingsley Taylor
Walter Taylor's guide will help readers recognize and identify wildflowers by where they're most likely to be found growing - their natural habitat.This book is the first of its kind for Florida. Taylor provides detailed descriptions and color photos of each community - pine flatwoods, sandhills, upland pine forest, scrub, temperate hardwood forest, coastal uplands, subtropical pine forest, tropical hardwood hammock, and ruderal sites - and of the wildflower species associated with each.
Purchase or get more information by clicking on the following image/link:
Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species
USDA Plant Profile for this species
Date record last modified:
Dec 17, 2004