Coontie

Coontie. Zamia pumila or Zamia floridans. , 200 Million Years in the Making , Coontie is a low and palm-like or fern-like plant that grows throughout Florida and the Caribbean. Coontie is a member of the Phylum cycadacaea. At roughly 200 million years old, this is one of the older plant phyla in Florida, and is sometimes called a 'living fossil'. Looking at this plant, you may notice that it seems a bit more primitive than other plants you might see in the Park. , Coontie is often found in well-drained shallow sandy soil and is commonly found on coastal middens and shell mounds. The name Coontie comes to English most directly from the Seminole language. The original Seminole meaning was 'white root' or 'flour root'. When the Seminole Indians moved into Florida in the mid-18th century, they found the remnant Timucua and Calusa populations extracting flour from Zamia, and quickly added it to their potpourri of wild plant foods. , a.k.a. Florida Arrowroot , But Use Caution , With a subterranean stem that is rich in starch, Coontie has a historically widespread use as a food among Florida Indian peoples. The plant must be carefully processed to remove toxins that are naturally inherent in the plant. These poisonous compounds are called cycasins. Preparation of edible starch from the roots requires complex processing , a flour base called sago or sofkee can be prepared from the roots, after washing and boiling has removed the cycasin. All parts of the Coontie are toxic to humans if eaten raw, and all plant parts are poisonous to dogs and livestock as well. , Around 1825, early settlers in the Fort Lauderdale area learned the Seminole's technique of removing the toxin cycasin from the Coontie to produce starch. By the 1880s, several mills were in business in Miami. During world war one, one mill was processing as much as 18 tons of coontie daily for military purchase. The starch content was said to range from 20% in winter to a low of 8% in summer. By 1911, the starch was known as "Florida Arrowroot." The Food and Drug Administration banned the practice of Coontie starch making in 1925, because of the chance that improper procedures could result in unintentional poisoning. The last commercial Coontie starch factory in Florida was destroyed by the 1926 Miami Hurricane. , The Atala Hairstreak Butterfly Returns , Coontie is critically important to the Eumaeus atala butterfly, also known as the Atala Hairstreak. , This butterfly, thought to be extinct until recently, is dependent for its survival on the Zamia genus. As Coontie plants were harvested in the millions for starch making, the butterfly had no food source and died out in large areas. With the return of the Coontie plant as a common landscaping shrub, the butterfly has made a return. , At the larval stage, the Eumaeus atala caterpillar exclusively eats the leaves of the coontie. A half dozen caterpillars can completely strip a Coontie bare and so a large coontie population is needed to sustain the Eumaeus atala population. The butterfly is boldly colored, with black wings, cyan spots, and a bright orange abdomen.