Cycad

1 Description
Cycads /sakdz/ are seed plants with a long fossil history that were formerly more abundant and more diverse
than they are today. They typically have a stout and
woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard and
sti, evergreen leaves. They usually have pinnate leaves.
The individual plants are either all male or all female
(dioecious). Cycads vary in size from having trunks only
a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically
grow very slowly and live very long, with some specimens
known to be as much as 1,000 years old. Because of their
supercial resemblance, they are sometimes mistaken for
palms or ferns, but are only distantly related to either.
The living cycads are found across much of the
subtropical and tropical parts of the world. The greatest diversity occurs in South and Central America. They
are also found in Mexico, the Antilles, southeastern
United States, Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Japan,
China, Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar,
and southern and tropical Africa, where at least 65
species occur. Some can survive in harsh desert or semidesert climates (xerophytic),[3] others in wet rain forest
conditions,[4] and some in both.[5] Some can grow in sand
or even on rock, some in oxygen-poor, swampy, bog-like
soils rich in organic material. Some are able to grow in
full sun, some in full shade, and some in both. Some are
salt tolerant (halophytes).

Cycads have a rosette of pinnate leaves around cylindrical trunk

Cycads have a cylindrical trunk which usually does not

branch. Leaves grow directly from the trunk, and typically fall when older, leaving a crown of leaves at the
top. The leaves grow in a rosette form, with new foliage
emerging from the top and center of the crown. The trunk
may be buried, so the leaves appear to be emerging from
the ground, so the plant appears to be a basal rosette. The
leaves are generally large in proportion to the trunk size,
and sometimes even larger than the trunk.
The leaves are pinnate (in the form of bird feathers,
pinnae), with a central leaf stalk from which parallel
ribs emerge from each side of the stalk, perpendicular to it. The leaves are typically either compound (the
leaf stalk has leaets emerging from it as ribs), or have
edges (margins) so deeply cut (incised) so as to appear
compound. Some species have leaves that are bipinnate,
which means the leaets each have their own subleaets,
growing in the same form on the leaet as the leaets grow
on the stalk of the leaf (self-similar geometry).

The three extant families of cycads are Cycadaceae,

Stangeriaceae, and Zamiaceae. Cycads have changed little since the Jurassic, compared to some major evolutionary changes in other plant divisions.
Cycads are gymnosperms (naked seeded), meaning their
unfertilized seeds are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms,
which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements. Cycads have very specialized
pollinators, usually a specic species of beetle. They
have been reported to x nitrogen in association with
various cyanobacteria living in the roots (the coralloid roots).[6] These photosynthetic bacteria produce a
neurotoxin called BMAA that is found in the seeds of cycads. This neurotoxin may enter a human food chain as
the cycad seeds may be eaten directly as a source of our
by humans or by wild or feral animals such as bats, and
humans may eat these animals. It is hypothesized that this
is a source of some neurological diseases in humans.[7][8]

2 Taxonomy
Cycads are most closely related to the extinct
Bennettitales, and are also relatively close relatives
to the Ginkgoales, as shown in the following phylogeny:
Classication of the Cycadophyta to the rank of family.
Class Cycadopsida Order Medullosales Family
Alethopteridaceae
Family Cyclopteridaceae
1

HISTORICAL DIVERSITY

3 Historical diversity
The probable former range of cycads can be inferred from
their global distribution. For example, the family Stangeriaceae only contains three extant species in Africa and
Australia. Diverse fossils of this family have been dated
to 135 mya, indicating that diversity may have been much
greater before the Jurassic and late Triassic mass extinction events. However, the cycad fossil record is generally
poor and little can be deduced about the eects of each
mass extinction event on their diversity.
Instead, correlations can be made between the number of
extant gymnosperms and angiosperms. It is likely that cyBowenia spectabilis : plant with single frond in the Daintree rain- cad diversity was aected more by the great angiosperm
radiation in the mid-Cretaceous than by extinctions. Very
forest, north-east Queensland
slow cambial growth was rst used to dene cycads, and
because of this characteristic the group could not compete with the rapidly growing, relatively short-lived angiosperms, which now number over 250,000 species,
compared to the 947 remaining gymnosperms. It is surprising that the cycads are still extant, having been faced
with extreme competition and ve major extinctions. The
ability of cycads to survive in relatively dry environments
where plant diversity is generally lower, may explain their
long persistence and longevity.

3.1 Origins
The cycad fossil record dates to the early Permian, 280
million years ago (mya). There is controversy over older
cycad fossils that date to the late Carboniferous period,
300325 mya. This clade probably diversied extensively
within its rst few million years, although the extent to
which it radiated is unknown because relatively few fossil
specimens have been found. The regions to which cycads
are restricted probably indicate their former distribution
in the Pangea before the supercontinents Laurasia and
Gondwana separated.[9] Recent studies have indicated the
common perception of existing cycad species as living
fossils is largely misplaced, with only Bowenia dating to
the Cretaceous or earlier. Although the cycad lineage itself is ancient, most extant species have evolved in the last
12 million years.[10]
Leaves and cone of Encephalartos sclavoi

Family Neurodontopteridaceae
Family Parispermaceae
Order Cycadales Suborder Cycadineae Family
Cycadaceae
Suborder Zamiineae Family Stangeriaceae
Family Zamiaceae

The family Stangeriaceae (named for Dr. William

Stanger, 18111854), consisting of only three extant
species, is thought to be of Gondwanan origin, as fossils have been found in Lower Cretaceous deposits in
Argentina, dating to 70135 mya. The family Zamiaceae
is more diverse, with a fossil record extending from the
middle Triassic to the Eocene (54200 mya) in North
and South America, Europe, Australia, and Antarctica,
implying the family was present before the break-up
of Pangea. The family Cycadaceae is thought to be
an early oshoot from other cycads, with fossils from
Eocene deposits (3854 mya) in Japan, China, and North
America,[11] indicating this family originated in Laura-

3
sia. Cycas is the only genus in the family and contains
99 species, the most of any cycad genus. Molecular
data have recently shown Cycas species in Australasia and
the east coast of Africa are recent arrivals, suggesting
adaptive radiation may have occurred. The current distribution of cycads may be due to radiations from a few
ancestral types sequestered on Laurasia and Gondwana,
or could be explained by genetic drift following the separation of already evolved genera. Both explanations account for the strict endemism across present continental
lines.

3.2

Current distribution

Approximate world distribution of living Cycadales

Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport, Northern

Territory, retrieved 16 July 2015
[4] Bermingham, E.; Dick, C.W.; Moritz, C. (2005), Tropical
Rainforests: Past, Present, and Future, University of
Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226044682
[5] "Macrozamia communis", The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
[6] Rai, A.N.; Soderback, E.; Bergman, B. (2000),
Tansley Review No. 116. Cyanobacterium-Plant
Symbioses, The New Phytologist, 147 (3): 449
481, doi:10.1046/j.1469-8137.2000.00720.x, JSTOR
2588831
[7] Holtcamp, W. (2012).
The emerging science of
BMAA: do cyanobacteria contribute to neurodegenerative disease?". Environmental Health Perspectives. 120
(3): a110a116. doi:10.1289/ehp.120-a110. PMC
3295368 . PMID 22382274.
[8] Cox, PA, Davis, DA, Mash, DC, Metcalf, JS, Banack,
SA. (2015). Dietary exposure to an environmental toxin
triggers neurobrillary tangles and amyloid deposits in
the brain. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 283
(1823): 20152397. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.2397. PMC
4795023 . PMID 26791617.
[9] (Hermsen et al. 2006).

Species diversity of the extant cycads peaks at 17 15"N [10] Nagalingum, N. S.; et al. (2011). Recent Synchronous
Radiation of a Living Fossil. Science. 334 (6057): 796
and 28 12"S, with a minor peak at the equator. There is
799. doi:10.1126/science.1209926.
therefore not a latitudinal diversity gradient towards the
equator but towards the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic [11] Hopkins, DJ; KR Johnson (December 1997). First
of Capricorn. However, the peak near the northern tropic
Record of cycad leaves from the Eocene Republic ora.
Washington Geology. 25 (4): 37.
is largely due to Cycas in Asia and Zamia in the New
World, whereas the peak near the southern tropic is due to
Cycas again, and also to the diverse genus Encephalartos
in southern and central Africa, and Macrozamia in Aus- 6 External links
tralia. Thus, the distribution pattern of cycad species with
latitude appears to be an artifact of the geographical isola Palm Trees, Small Palms, Cycads, Bromeliads and
tion of the remaining cycad genera and their species, and
tropical plants site with thousands of large, high
perhaps because they are partly xerophytic rather than
quality photos of cycads and associated ora. Insimply tropical.
cludes information on habitat and cultivation.

See also
Fossil Cycad National Monument, formerly in the
U.S. state of South Dakota

References

[1] Bessey, C.E. (1907). A synopsis of plant phyla. Nebraska Univ. Stud. 7: 275373.
[2] Brongniart, A. (1843). numration des genres de plantes
cultives au Muse d'histoire naturelle de Paris.
[3] National Recovery Plan for the MacDonnell Ranges Cycad
Macrozamia macdonnellii (PDF), Department of Natural

Hill KD (19982004) The Cycad Pages, Royal

Botanic Gardens Sydney. http://plantnet.rbgsyd.
nsw.gov.au/PlantNet/cycad/index.html
Gymnosperm Database: Cycads
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden- one of the
largest collection of cycads in the world in Florida,
U.S.A.
Palm and Cycad Societies of Australia (PACSOA)
The Cycad Society of South Africa
Cycad nitrogen xation
Cycad toxicity
Cycads - Foto

6
The Cult of the Cycads, New York Times Magazine
article on cycad collectorship and cycad smuggling
Cycads An annotated link directory

EXTERNAL LINKS

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Cycad Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycad?oldid=761328972 Contributors: Azhyd, Heron, Edward, Gabbe, Arpingstone, Stan
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