Coontie, Florida’s only native cycad, wins National Award from GCA
Coontie. Elizabeth Dowdle
February 15, 2020
Coontie (Zamia integrifolia) is the only native cycad in North America and it is indigenous to South Florida.
Cycads are among the oldest plants on earth, dating back 325 million years. They were so prolific by the Jurassic period that this is sometimes called the Age of Cycads, rather than the Age of Dinosaurs.
Today, they are restricted to tropical and subtropical regions and are considered endangered, but they haven’t changed all that much since the Jurassic. They are dioecious, meaning that male and females have separate plants, producing their seeds or pollen on often very colorful cones.
They are gymnosperms, having “naked seeds” with no flowers or fruit. And they fix nitrogen through the cynobacteria lining in their roots, which also produces the dangerous neurotoxin cycasin.
Coonties were prolific in southern Florida for centuries and the indigenous tribes learned to remove the toxin from the root by soaking and masceration. The remaining starchy residue was ground into flour and used for making bread. This process was passed on to the Seminole Indians, who named the plant conti hateka, meaning white root or white bread.
The Seminoles in turn taught the process to the early settlers of Fort Lauderdale. By the 1880s, several mills were in production in Miami. During World War I, as many as 18 tons of coontie were processed daily for the military. This led to the original decimation of the plant, which was further depleted by overdevelopment in the later housing booms. But coontie has made a terrific rebound since being commercially propagated and offered in the nursery trade.
What no one realized was that coontie is the only host plant for the rare and beautiful atela butterfly. The story of coontie and the atela is one of the most compelling and truly remarkable conservation success stories out there.
The atela butterfly, a stunning midnight blue specimen with bright blue markings and a striking orange/red abdomen, was listed as “presumed extinct” in Peterson’s 1965 “Field Guide to the Butterflies.” In 1979, Florida naturalist Roger Hammer discovered some bright red larvae with yellow spots feeding on coontie leaves in a remote area of Virginia Key. He brought some home and watched as they pupated into the long-lost atela.
Hammer returned to the original site with several potted coontie plants and left them until they, too, were covered with eggs and larvae and then dispersed the plants into areas containing coonties, including Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and several state and county parks and preserves in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. After gathering hundreds of larvae and pupae, he had an Everglades National Park biologist “accidentally” drop them off at Long Pine Key in Everglades National Park – and then the Atelas were back.
This story and the heroic efforts of one man to save a species was picked up by National Geographic, but it didn’t really garner the attention it deserved. Coonties are listed as endangered and commercially exploited in the wild, so it is important to understand their vital role in the life cycle of the Atela.
Coontie makes a stunning landscape plant, with lovely deep green fernlike foliage emerging from a central underground stem or caudex. It is typically 1-3 feet tall and works as a thick ground cover or low border along a walk or pathway in sun or part shade. Planted in clumps, it will fill in any bare spots you may have in your garden and it is exceedingly tough; drought and cold tolerant and resistant to salt spray, it is also a perfect choice for coastal plantings.
The female cones split open to reveal bright orange-red seeds which are quite beautiful, but which can be toxic to inquisitive dogs. This is a wonderful low maintenance native that will work in any Florida landscape.
Additionally, coontie has recently received The Garden Club of America’s most prestigious Freeman Medal Special Recognition award. This award is given to a truly outstanding plant, chosen by a panel of horticultural experts from around the country from an extensive number of applicants. It is sort of like the Oscars of the plant world, so all the more reason to add this celebrity plant to your landscape. It could also be suitable for street or highway plantings, especially along roads where grass requires too much maintenance.
Best of all, it requires no pesticides or fertilizers. If you are interested in butterflies or birds, you want to avoid all of these chemicals anyway. Last week’s Songbirds seminar at Town Hall confirmed the carcinogenic effects of organophosphates and pyrethroids, which are in most of the pesticides used by chemical companies on Palm Beach landscapes.
Here are some products you should avoid at all costs:
*Glyphosate: The glyphosate in the herbicide Roundup is a proven “probable carcinogen.” Introduced by Monsanto in 1978, hundreds of millions of pounds of glyphosate are used annually on farmlands across America; as a result, we are all exposed to this chemical every day in our food, air and water. It has been linked to Autism, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, ALS, Leukemia and other cancers. In 2018, EWG tests revealed shockingly high levels of glyphosate in oat-based cereals. Yet glyphosate is exempt from government pesticide-residue testing programs.
Organophosphates: Developed in Germany in the 1940s, attack the nervous system in the same manner as the nerve agent sarin. While high-level exposure to organophosphates can cause death, chronic low level exposure can also have serious health consequences, especially for children.
Studies have linked organophosphate exposure to leukemia, lymphoma, Parkinson’s, autism, reduced fertility and reproductive issues, neurological disorders, and impaired immune systems. It is highly toxic to wildlife, bees, and other essential pollinators. Chlorpyrifos, a commonly used organophosphate sold under the name Lorsban, has been banned from household use, but remains in widespread use by farmers on more than 50 fruit, nut, cereal, and vegetable crops. Although scientific studies produced by the EPA linked this pesticide to damaged brain development in children, it remains universally available.
Pyrethroids: The synthetic pyrethroid in Bifenthrin is routinely used in Palm Beach to control white fly. Although it is not supposed to be used more than once every 3 months, I have spoken to technicians who are using it as often as once a week. Sold under the labels of Talstar, Bifen, and Mikron, among others, this is listed as a “likely human carcinogen” and studies have linked its exposure to neurologic damage in children. It readily enters groundwater, where it is highly toxic to fish and aquatic animals. All these chemicals have been linked to the decimation of honeybees and other essential pollinators.
Neonicotinoids: “Neonics” for short, these are pesticides that attack the insect’s nervous system, causing paralysis and death. These are systemic, traveling throughout the plant’s roots, stem, leaves and flowers, making every part poisonous. Listed as hazardous to humans and domestic animals, lethal to bees and butterflies, these last for months or years in the soil, and leach into our groundwater where they cause havoc to fish and aquatic animals. These are also widely used on Palm Beach properties.
If you have a true pest infestation, look into alternative methods: IPM, Integrated Pest Management is very successful, and neem oil and biological soaps are also effective. But spraying your property on a weekly or monthly basis to kill everything is not a sustainable solution for our small barrier island.
We all need to educate ourselves on the chemicals we so carelessly allow on our properties. It’s time we put the health of our children, our pets, ourselves and our environment ahead of the grandeur of our gardens.
-Kim Frisbie
The stela butterfly. Elizabeth Dowde
Atela butterfly pupae.
Atela eggs sit on a Coontie leaf.
A Coontie cone. Elizabeth Dowdle
Coontie seeds.