Zamia pygmea

Guayra 

Scientific name : Zamia pygmea

Family: Zamiaceae

The smallest cycad plant, 

It forms a short underground trunk which holds a small crown of short, stiff, slightly arching leaves with rounded leaflets.

The plant has a small hypogeal stem  up to 2 cm in diameter. 

The stem bears small sheathing cataphylls with a pair of inconspicuous stipules.

 In its harsh native habitat the compound leaves are one to four in number, but in cultivation plants may grow with up to twenty leaves —these have smooth petioles and rachis, and bear five to fifteen pairs of ovate leaflets.

Although in cultivation the plant grows more pairs of leaflets. 

They bear dark reddish brown, pedunculate pollen cones and dark reddish brown to gray seed cones. 

The seeds are ovoid and red to orange-red in colour.

Zamia pygmaea is one of the species of Zamia that can change drastically under cultivation.

The plants become more vigorous and produce more and larger leaves and larger stems.