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Useful
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Tree |
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Cycas
Genus |
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| Other Names for this Plant |
Cycas
Found in Santos, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
evergreen, gymnospermous, dioecious plants having large pinnately compound leaves.
The plants are dioecious, and the family Cycadaceae is unique among the cycads in not forming seed cones on female plants, but rather a group of leaf-like structures each with seeds on the lower margins, and pollen cones on male individuals.
The caudex is cylindrical, surrounded by the persistent petiole base. Most species form distinct branched or unbranched trunks but in some species the main trunk can be subterranean with the leaf crown appearing to arise directly from the ground. The leaves are pinnate (or more rarely bipinnate) and arranged spirally, with thick and hard keratinose. The leaflets are articulated, have midrib but lack secondary veins. Megasporophylls are not gathered in cones.
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Compare Species
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Cycas Family |
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Cycas Order |
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Seed Plants |
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Multiple Spore Sub-Kingdom |
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Multicellular Land Plants |
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Cells with a Nucleus |
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Maybe: Cycas circinalis
This is one of the more primitive trees on the planet.
They are frequently confused with and mistaken for palms or ferns, but are only distantly related to both, and instead belong to the division Cycadophyta.
Some are renowned for survival in harsh semi-desert climates, and can grow in sand or even on rock. They are able to grow in full sun or shade, and some are salt tolerant. Though they are a minor component of the plant kingdom today, during the Jurassic period they were extremely common.
They have very specialized pollinators and have been reported to fix nitrogen in association with a cyanobacterium living in the roots. This blue-green algae produces a neurotoxin called BMAA that is found in the seeds of cycads.
Often considered a living fossil, the earliest fossils of the genus Cycas appear in the Cenozoic although Cycas-like fossils that may belong to Cycadaceae extend well into the Mesozoic. Cycas is not closely related to other genera of cycads, and phylogenetic studies have shown that Cycadaceae is the sister-group to all other extant cycads.
The plant takes several years to grow, sexual reproduction takes place after 10 years of exclusive vegetative growth.
Cycad
Cycad - January 05, 2010
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Male Cyca Cone
Male Cyca Cone - January 05, 2010
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Cycad
Cycad - January 05, 2010
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Cycad
Cycad - January 05, 2010
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| Comment:
Cycad Tree, Cycas |
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Cycad Tree on:
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