Costilla de León or Mountain Lion's Rib (Ceratozamia kuesteriana)
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Ceratozamia kuesteriana, the Costilla de león (mountain lion's rib), is a slow growing, cold hardy cycad from Mexico. It does very well in our area in the shade. It likes water once a week in the summer, and doesn't mind limestone as long as there is a little bit of good soil to get its roots into.
The picture below shows the newly emergent leaves of this cycad - notice the beautiful reddish brown color. Could there be an evolutionary reason for this? All parts of cycads are toxic, particularly the leaves. When the leaves are young, however, the toxins take awhile to build up. One theory is that green leaves look more edible to an herbivore than do reddish brown leaves. This color might have evolved to help prevent the young, less toxic leaves from being eaten until they have hardened off.
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class: Cycadopsida / order: Cycadales / family: Cycadaceae / genus: Ceratozamia / species: kuesteriana
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