Tuesday, August 12, 2008

staggering Zamia

I found this lovely Zamia furfuracea looking utterly at home in front of a stone obelisk at the beautifully landscaped Natura Cabanas in the Dominican Republic.

zamiafurf


Zamia are ideal for this sort of lightly shady spot as they can thrive in the understory. This one obviously was as looking under its canopy I found 7 male cones.

zamiafurfmalecone


Here's a close-up of the elongated male cones. The female cones are much prettier in my view but these certainly look healthy.

zamiafurfmalecone2

5 comments:

Mother Nature said...

It is nice to see it in the landscape. I have one in a pot.

tai haku said...

Thanks MN - I think cycads are so architectural they are one of the plants that look great in both pots and singly in the landscape.

Anonymous said...

That Cardboard Palm is very nice! We have a few very large specimens used in some landscaping around here also. Thanks for the ID on my post, I think you nailed it!

Joe said...

We call those cardboard palm. They are cool looking and can handle the sun and drought!

tai haku said...

Cheers guys, as you both point out zamia furf. is a great landscaping plant for any number of reasons. It is, for me, a little too popular - I'd like to see some of the other Zamia species like lodgesii, fisherii, vasquezii etc get a look in.