zamia

American  

[zey-mee-uh] / ˈzeɪ mi ə /

noun

1. any of various plants of the genus Zamia, chiefly of tropical and subtropical America, having a short, tuberous stem and a crown of palmlike pinnate leaves.

---

zamia British  

/ ˈzeɪmɪə /

noun

1. any cycadaceous plant of the genus Zamia, of tropical and subtropical America, having a short thick trunk, palmlike leaves, and short stout cones

---

Etymology

Origin of zamia

1810–20; < New Latin, misreading of Latin (Pliny) ( nucēs ) azāniae (plural) pine cone (nuts)

Example Sentences

But there is also a growth of buried underwood, consisting of arbutus, barberry, fuchsias, flowering currants, and a singular fern, also occurring in the island of Juan Fernandez, and resembling the zamia of Australia.

From The Land of Fire A Tale of Adventure by Reid, Mayne

It was not treeless; but sparsely covered with cactus, grass-like tufts of zamia, and stunted fir-trees.

From The Bandolero A Marriage among the Mountains by Reid, Mayne

On passing the last, the party emerged on to poorly grassed, desolate-looking sandstone ridges, covered with grass-tree and zamia.

From Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland by Byerley, Frederick, J.

Those of palms, pandanus, zamia, conifers, proteacees, lecythidees, cucurbitacees, the leguminous family, the bignonias, bombacees, sterculiacees, especially deserve to be collected separately.

From Movement of the International Literary Exchanges, between France and North America from January 1845 to May, 1846 With Instructions for Collecting, Preparing, and Forwarding Objects of Natural History Written by The Professors Administrators of The Museum Of Natural History At Paris. And Instructions Relative to Anthropology and Zoology by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Isidore