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Cycads in South Africa. 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 ...
Cycas is a genus of cycad, and the only genus in the family Cycadaceae with all other genera of cycad being divided between the Stangeriaceae and Zamiaceae families. Cycas circinalis, a species endemic to India, was the first cycad species to be described in western literature, and is the type species of the genus.
Download as PDF; Printable version; In other projects Wikidata item; Appearance. ... CITES and Cycads: a user’s guide. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Kew Publishing.
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.
The leaves can be completely lost during cold periods, with the plant lying dormant in its tuberous root system, allowing this cycad to be relatively cold hardy. The plant can survive up to USDA region 8b (10° to 20°F). The stems and leaves regenerate after the cold period subsides with full foliage. [8] [9]
The leaves are 2–4 m long and 40–80 cm broad, dark green and glossy, bipinnate, with 27-44 pairs of leaflets, each leaflet dichotomously divided (split in two), linear, 10–38 cm long and 1.5–3 cm broad, papery to leathery in texture; the leaf petiole is 0.5–2 m long, armed with spikes.
Z. picta is even more distinctive, being the only truly variegated cycad (having whitish/yellow speckles on the leaves). [7] Like all Zamiaceae, Zamia plants have "coralloid" (coral-shaped) roots which host nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. Stems are 3 to 25 centimetres (1.2 to 9.8 in) in diameter, and when arborial, up to 5 metres (16 ft) tall.
Encephalartos is a genus of cycad native to Africa. Several species of Encephalartos are commonly referred to as bread trees, [2] bread palms [3] or kaffir bread, [4] since a bread-like starchy food can be prepared from the centre of the stem.