Coontie and the Atala Hairstreak

Coontie (Zamia floridana) is one of about 200 remaining species of cycads. Cycads are primitive palm-like plants that were a dominant plant species some 200 million years ago. Able to survive harsh conditions, yearly freezes, poor soil and even high salinity it is no wonder that some of these tough species managed to survive to modern day.

Coontie and other cycads are gymnosperms which means they cone-bearing. These species are also dioecious which means they have separate male and female plants. Male plants produce cones full of pollen and female plants produce cones that contain seeds. Cycads are broken down into three families of plants: Zamiaceae, Cycadaceae and Stangeriaceae which include 11 genera with about 200 species.

Coontie is one of the oldest species of plants still found growing today and was resident on Earth in the time of the dinosaurs. Many cycads were likely used as forage for herbivorous dinosaurs. The seeds of coontie are bright orange and are used as food sources for several species of birds that help to distribute the seeds to new areas. Coontie, like magnolia, is a species so old that it predates bees and is pollinated by beetles.

Coontie in Florida: Florida was once home to vast swaths of coontie plants and the root of this species became an important food source for inhabitants. First consumed by the Timucua and Calusa tribes, the starchy tuber of coontie can be carefully processed to produce a type of flour. In the mid-18th century the Seminole tribe moved into the coontie-rich areas of Florida and also began to use the plant as a food source. The name "coontie" is actually a Seminole words that translates to something close to “flour root”. Coontie was later added to the diets of European settlers in Florida, but great care had to be used in the preparation of the plant. Coontie contains a toxin called cycasin in the root that must be removed through repeated washing or boiling before the root can be safe for consumption.

Also known as Florida Arrowroot, coontie became a very popular and inexpensive starch source in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A number of Florida factories produced a starch sold as Florida Arrowroot from 1830 to 1925 and production peaked around the time of World War I. During this period coontie was processed in immense quantities and many Florida plant populations became depleted. Forests were cleared as lumber needs of the factories increased and the natural habitat of coontie quickly began to dwindle. The slow growing plant was not able to replenish itself to return to its former abundance.

The Extinction and Rebirth of a Butterfly: Habitats for coontie came increasingly under fire as populations in Florida swelled during the 20th century. Between starch production and increased building, numbers of Florida coontie continued to decline. The tiny Atala Hairstreak butterfly (Eumaeus atala) followed suit.

The Atala is a small but colorful butterflies that uses the new-growth leaves of coontie as a larval host-plant. Atala butterflies are able to consume the toxic cycasin resident in coontie and because of this are distasteful to birds. The bright orange bodies of these butterflies are thought to be an aposematic warning sign. As the host plant became harder for the butterfly to find, populations of the Atala butterfly continued to plummet. Attempts at breeding and release programs were hampered by frequent and devastating hurricanes until the butterfly was thought to be extinct in the United States in 1965.

In 1979 a small colony of Atala butterflies was discovered in Virginia Key. Since then coontie has regained popularity as a landscaping plant and the tiny original population has begun to spread back into areas formerly inhabited by the Atala. The rebound of this species should continue as the plant is replaced back into the landscape. The story of the coontie reminds us that life in our environment is connected in a vast web of relationships and that the removal of any thread in that web may have vast and far-reaching consequences for our precious world.

Learn about our experiences at MOSI Outside raising and displaying Atala Hairstreaks by clicking here.

What's In a Name? Zamia comes from the Greek word “azaniae” which means pine cone. Coontie was first described as a species by Linnaeus in 1763 and the species has been known by several different scientific names since then. Currently there is argument that all Coontie in Florida are of one species Zamia floridana, but the plant may have regional differences in appearance and size. Other argue that Florida is home to several distinct species of Zamia that each should be recognized as individual species. The debate continues.

The Atala butterfly was first described by Cuban zoologist Felipe Poey. The butterfly is named for the heroine of an 1801 novella, Atala ou les amours de deux sauvages dans le désert, written by François-René de Chateaubriand, the “Father of French Romanticism”.