A Zamiaceae come the personal of cycads that are superficially palm or even fern-ferny. It is divided into 2 subfamilies by using eight genera & astir 150 coinage in the tropical & warmly moderate regions of Africa, Australia and North and South America.

A Zamiaceae come perennial, evergreen, and dioecious. It use subterranean to tall & vertical, commonly unbranching, cylindric stems, & stems clad using lasting leaf bases (around Australian genera).

Their leaves are simply pinnated, spirally intended, & interspersed by owning cataphylls. A leaflets come another time dichotomously divided. the leaflets occur by owning many sub-parallel, dichotomously-branching longitudinal veins; it lack a mid rib. Stomata occur either on each shells or even underside simply.

Their roots develop little secondary roots. A coral-prefer roots produce at a base of a stem at or even following the soil surface.

Male & female sporophylls are spirally aggregated into determinate cones that grow along a axis. Female sporophyl come elementary, appearing shield-shaped, using the barren stipe and an expanded and thickened lamina sustaining Ii (seldom Iii or even further) sessile ovules inserted on the inner (axis facing) surface and directed inbound. A seeds come angular, by owning a inner coat hardened & a outer coat heavy. It is typically brilliantly colored, using Two cotyledons.

A single subfamily, a Encephalartoideae, is characterized by spirally ordered sporophyl (like than spirally orthostichous), non-articulate leaflets & lasting leaf bases. These are represented inside Australia, using deuce genera & Forty coinage.

Genera
Subfamily Encephalartoideae Chigua Dioon Encephalartos, including the Modjadji cycad Lepidozamia Subfamily Zamioideae Macrozamia Ceratozamia Microcycas Zamia

Occasionally classifications as well place a genus Bowenia in the Zamiaceae.

When by owning tons cycads, members of the Zamiaceae come poisonous, producing poisonous glycosides known as cycasins.