This is the only species of Dioon that occurs outside of Mexico as it grows in Honduras. The plants are numerous in the habitat although much of the area has been cleared and converted to grasslands. The plants remain because people harvest the cones with almost ripe seeds and make flour from the ground-up seeds. In cultivation, it is more cold tolerant. It most closely resembles Dioon spinulosum or Dioon rzedowski. The growth habit is more upright than it’s sister species and it lacks the spines of spinulosum.