Ornamental Horticulture

CYCADS

Cycads look like palms but have no botanical relationship with them. Very often they are referred to as palms but these plants have nothing in common with palms except the general habit of growth. Cycads belong to the family Cycadaceae and hence are commonly referred to as cycads.
The commonly grown cycads include plants belonging to the genera Cycas, Dioon, Zamia and Macrozamia.
The general cultivation of cycads is similar to that palms and similar types of soil and climate will suit them. Most of the plants in this group are slow in growth and prefer partial shade when grown in the tropics while in the hills these may have to be grown under glass. They are suitable for planting in ground or as pot plants.



Details of some of the popular cycads are furnished below


S. No.	Common Name	Remarks
1.	Cycus cercinalis (C. thouarsii)	The stem is erect, cylindrical, market with leaf scars, and usually grows to a height of 4.5 m but may attain a height upto 12m. The stem is usually unbranched. The appearance of the tree is palm-like, with the crown having a graceful rosette of fern-like, stiff, glossy, gracefully curved pinnate leaves, the leaflets being flat on the margins. The young leaves are covered with reddish-brown hair
2.	C. revoluta (Syn. C.inermis)	It is commonly called the ‘Sago Palm’ It is about 3 m tall, sometimes branched above. The leaves are 60 cm to 3 m long, recurved, and the leaflets are many, stiff in nature, and rolled downwards.
3.	Dioon edule	An ornamental palm-like foliage plant which is very ornamental and more or less similar in appearance to cycas. The stem is about 90 cm tall and similar dimension. The pinnate leaves have spiny tips. The petioles are covered with white wools at young stage. The cones are 30 cm long.
4.	D. spinulosum	The plants grow up to 15 m and have a slender trunk, crowned by a noble rosette of spreading pinnate leaves up to 1.8 m long. But the margins have 5-8 spines.
5.	Encephalarios caffer (E.caffra)	The plants are handsome, palm-like with a stout stem which may grow up to 5.5 m. A crown may consist of 14 leaves, each about 60 to 120 cm long
6.	E. hildebrandtii	A beautiful plant growing up to 6m. The leaves are up to 2.7 m long, and the main stalk is woolly when young.
7.	Macrozamia spiralis (Syn. M. tridentate)	The trunk is short and usually underground. The leaves are 80 to 100, up to 1.8 m long, and the flat leaflets are spiny-tipped.
8.	Zamia	This genus differs very little from cycas but the leaves are more leathery and fern-like. The plants are tropical and subtropical and resemble palms and to some extent ferns.