Ads
related to: how to cultivate cycad seeds
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Cycads / ˈ s aɪ k æ d z / are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall.
Like other cycads, Z. integrifolia is dioecious, having male or female plants. The male cones are cylindrical, growing to 5–16 cm long; they are often clustered. The female cones are elongate-ovoid and grow to 5–19 cm long and 4–6 cm in diameter. [8] It produces reddish seed cones with a distinct acuminate tip.
This plant produces a rusty-brown cone in the center of the female plant. It's a dioecious species, meaning that the egg-shaped female (seed-producing) cones and smaller male (pollen-producing) cone clusters are produced on separate plants. Pollination is done by certain insects, namely the cycad weevil Rhopalotria mollis.
While there are more than 200 species of cycads, only one is native to Florida, and only a couple are popular landscaping plants in our area.
Dioon spinulosum, giant dioon, or gum palm, is a cycad endemic to limestone cliffs and rocky hillsides in the tropical rainforests of Veracruz and Oaxaca, Mexico. [1] [2] It is one of the tallest cycads in the world, growing to 12m in height. The tree is found at low elevations to 300 m above sea level.
The seeds are large and numerous and have red sarcotesta. [2] All parts of the plant, especially the seeds, are toxic to both livestock and humans; if ingested, the seeds can cause severe gastrointestinal irritation and abdominal cramps, vomiting and nausea, diarrhoea, and potentially also liver damage and muscular paralysis. [5]
Cycads all over the world are in decline, with four species on the brink of extinction and seven species have fewer than 100 plants left in the wild. [2] 23,420 species of vascular plant have been recorded in South Africa, making it the sixth most species-rich country in the world and the most species-rich country on the African continent.
Macrozamia riedlei, commonly known as a zamia or zamia palm, is a species of cycad in the plant family Zamiaceae. It is endemic to southwest Australia and often occurs in jarrah forests . It may only attain a height of half a metre or form an above trunk up to two metres with long arching fronds of a similar length.