Dioon is a genus of cycads in the family Zamiaceae. It is native to Mexico and Central America.[3] Their habitats include tropical forests, pine-oak forest, and dry hillsides, canyons and coastal dunes.[4][5][6][7]
Dioons are dioecious, palmlike shrubs with cylindrical stems, usually with many leaves. The species in the genus Dioon are perennial, evergreen cycads with cylindrical stem axis is partially in the ground. The plant is thickened and made of soft wood, rarely having above ground branches. Leaf bases are persistent or shedding to leave smooth bark. Leaf bases are persistent or shedding to leave smooth bark. The leaves are pinnate, spirally arranged, interspersed with cataphylls, with leaflets not articulated and lacking a midrib. The lower leaflets are often reduced to spines. The sporophylls are not in vertical rows in cones, and the megasporophyll apices are broadly flattened, upturned, and overlapping.
Species in the genus Dioon have 2n = 18 chromosomes.[8]
The largest species is D. spinolosum, which are over 16 meters high and whose trunk diameter can reach 40 centimeters. However, typical specimens of other species are only between three and six feet high or remain even smaller. Dioon can get very old, maybe even over 1000 years. Dioon edule and Dioon tomasellii have the most widespread ranges. Most species have highly limited geographical ranges.
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