The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Dioon edule
Also called Chestnut Dioon, Virgin palm, Edible Seed Cycas
Dioon edule, the chestnut dioon, is a cycad native to Mexico, also known as palma de la virgen. Cycads are among the oldest seed plants and even pre-date the dinosaurs. It belongs to the Zamiaceae plant family within the order Cycadales. The genus name "Dioon" means "two-egged", referring to the two ovules (see photo below).
Two subspecies are known, the nominate subspecies growing in a moister environment than the other:
Dioon edule is endemic to the eastern coast of Mexico. It is commonly found distributed throughout the Sierra Madre Oriental from Veracruz to the Nuevo Leon. It commonly resides in tropical deciduous thorn forests and oak woodlands. They are usually found at an altitude of 500–1000 feet in harsh areas including exposed, shallow soils. Most of the areas in which D. edule resides are subjected to very dry climates and frequent brush fires which impact their survival and distribution.
Dioon angustifolium · Dioon argenteum · Cycad · Cycad · Cycad · Dioon mejiae · Cycad · Cycad · Cycad · Cycad · Giant Dioon · Dioon stevensonii
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dioon edule by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
