Species
+

Dioon edule Lindl.

Chestnut Dioon, Cycad, Virgin palm, edible-seed cycas

Climate known 27 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Dioon edule, the chestnut dioon, is a cycad native to Mexico, also known as palma de la virgen. Cycads are among the oldest seed plants and even pre-date the dinosaurs. It belongs to the Zamiaceae plant family within the order Cycadales. The genus name "Dioon" means "two-egged", referring to the two ovules.

Text from Wikipedia, “Dioon edule”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Dioon

Dioon is a genus of cycads in the family Zamiaceae. It is native to Mexico and Central America. Their habitats include tropical forests, pine-oak forest, and dry hillsides, canyons and coastal dunes.

Text from Wikipedia, “Dioon”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Zamiaceae
Described by
Lindl.
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf
Wild records
247 in range· 110 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1136mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Jul 215 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Dioon, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1136 mm a year, wettest July at 215 mm, driest February at 22 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Dion edule Lindl.; Dioon edule f. edule; Dioon edule f. imbricatum (Miq.) Miq.; Dioon edule f. lanuginosum J.Schust.; Dioon edule subsp. edule and 16 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Dioon, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (876 mm of 1136 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.2 °C against a yearly mean of 21.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1136 mm a year, wettest July at 215 mm, driest February at 22 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1136 mm a year at the habitat, 876 mm of it June to October. Wettest month July at 215 mm, driest February at 22 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 710 mm to 1665 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 5.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 5.0 °C, the absolute minimum -5.5 °C, 15 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 6.9 °C to 16.1 °C), warmest day 29.6 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jan to 30 °C in May; mean night from 12 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1136 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 86 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -5.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost43.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-5.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 24–41RH 60–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 86 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 18–2424 / 20–2626 / 22–2829 / 25–3130 / 26–3229 / 26–3228 / 25–3228 / 25–3227 / 23–3026 / 22–2824 / 21–2722 / 19–24
Night °C12 / 7–1613 / 8–1715 / 10–1918 / 13–2120 / 15–2321 / 16–2420 / 16–2320 / 16–2320 / 15–2318 / 13–2115 / 10–1913 / 8–17
Rain mm30 / 21–5222 / 15–4323 / 15–4349 / 32–6980 / 49–111176 / 81–264215 / 84–289168 / 87–235212 / 140–298105 / 61–16332 / 17–6924 / 16–46
DLI24 / 22–2729 / 27–3235 / 32–3839 / 37–4241 / 38–4339 / 37–4338 / 36–4338 / 37–4233 / 31–3530 / 29–3227 / 25–2924 / 21–26
RH %64 / 59–6762 / 58–6561 / 56–6460 / 57–6463 / 59–6665 / 60–6865 / 59–6965 / 58–6866 / 63–6965 / 61–6764 / 58–6664 / 58–66

Each figure is the median across the 86 grid cells holding the 120 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1306:1614 (24.675, -99.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 86 distinct grid cells holding the 120 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1306:1614 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 24.50_-99.375, lapse-corrected -382 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 296 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker21.914, -99.316 · in the densest population, 218 records (88% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 247 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 110 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 32 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 127 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 247 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dioon eduleDioon eduleDioon eduleDioon eduleDioon eduleDioon eduleDioon eduleDioon edule

Photographs: (c) Adrianh M. Orozco, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sandino Guerrero, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Juan Cruzado Cortés, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Dioon edule, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Population genetics of Dioon edule Lindl. (Zamiaceae, Cycadales): biogeographical and evolutionary implications
Jorge González‐Astorga, Andrew P. Vovides, Miriam Monserrat Ferrer, Carlos Iglesias (2003) · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Population dynamics of the Mexican cycadDioon eduleLindl. (Zamiaceae): life history stages and management impact
Pablo Octavio‐Aguilar, JORGE GONZLEZ-ASTORGA, Andrew P. Vovides (2008) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
CAM-cycling in the cycad Dioon edule Lindl. in its natural tropical deciduous forest habitat in central Veracruz, Mexico
Andrew P. Vovides, John Etherington, Paul Dresser, ANDREW C. GROENHOF (2002) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
Morphological and geographic variation of the cycad Dioon edule Lindl. (Zamiaceae): ecological and evolutionary implications
Jorge González‐Astorga, Andrew P. Vovides, Carlos Iglesias (2003) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
An integrated conservation strategy for the cycadDioon edule Lindl
Andrew P. Vovides, Carlos Iglesias (1994) · Biodiversity and Conservation
Spermatogenesis in Dioon edule
Charles J. Chamberlain (1909) · Botanical Gazette
ZONAL STRUCTURE OF THE SHOOT APEX OF DIOON EDULE LINDL.
Adriance S. Foster (1941) · American Journal of Botany
Fertilization and Embryogeny in Dioon edule
Charles J. Chamberlain (1910) · Botanical Gazette
Natural History and Ecology of Mexico and Central America
Levente Hufnágel (2021) · IntechOpen eBooks
Strobilus and Seed Production of Dioon Edule (Zamiaceae) in a Population with low Seedling Density in San Luis Potosí, Mexico
Raymundo Mora, Laura Yáñez‐Espinosa, Joel Flores, Nadya Nava-Zárate (2013) · Tropical Conservation Science

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 42 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.