Light. Grows best with some shade but tolerates full sun or full shade.
Water. Water while it establishes. After that it is highly drought tolerant and rarely needs watering. It does not tolerate long flooding with salt or brackish water.
Soil and feeding. Grows in most well-drained soils, including sand and limestone. It does best with some organic matter but still grows reasonably well in poor soil.
Size. Grows to about 3 ft and about as wide, very slowly. For massed plantings, space plants 3–5 ft apart.
Problems to watch. Atala butterfly caterpillars can strip a plant to the ground, especially in mass plantings. A healthy, established plant regrows by the next season.
Good to know. A Florida native and the larval host of the atala butterfly. It takes moderate salt wind. The underground stem is poisonous, and the toxin is concentrated in tender new growth.
Sources: UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions: Coontie · Natives for Your Neighborhood (Institute for Regional Conservation): Zamia integrifolia
