Presented below is a photomicrograph of a thin section through a Zamia ovule. This digital image was captured with the DXM 1200 ACT-1 control software in single-image acquisition mode utilizing apodized phase contrast illumination.

The Zamia genus belongs to the Cycadophyta division of gymnosperms, an ancient lineage of plants that preceded the flowering plants, flourishing during the Mesozoic Era, about 245 to 66.4 million years ago. They have crowns of large, pinnately compound leaves and have cones at the ends of the branches. Male cones produce pollen that is carried by the wind to female cones on separate plants, where fertilization occurs. Like other gymnosperms, such as pine trees, cycads produce naked ovules in contrast to the flowering plants in which the ovules are enclosed in an ovary.

More than 50 species belong to the genus Zamia, small, stocky, fern-like plants native to tropical and subtropical America and the Caribbean. These plants are found as far north as Georgia and as far south as Bolivia. They have a fleshy turniplike root that can be used to make a starchy food.

In Florida, the Seminole Indians called this plant "coontie," roughly meaning "flour root." The Indians would cut up pieces of the stems and pound them out into a powder as much as possible. They washed this in water several times and let the starch sink to the bottom. The paste was removed and fermented, then dried to a powder. Zamia plants are also called comfort root.