Fern Palm

*Retired since 1st July, 1986

A vulnerable, if not endangered, species in China. Its formerly wide distribution in E Fujian has now been severely reduced as a result of over collection by commercial dealers and habitat destruction. It was sporadically distributed in Fujian in the 1960s, but it is now uncertain that any wild populations still exist. Cycas revoluta is the most commonly cultivated cycad because of its ornamental appearance, hardiness, and adaptability.

There are taxonomic problems with the species delimitation in the various populations of Cycas miquelii. The authors have chosen to recognize only two closely related species, C. ferruginea and C. mi-quelii, from among the many described because ample material was available and the characters separating them have no intermediate states. Cycas miquelii has dark green, leathery, glabrous leaflets that are truncate basally and mucronate and pungent apically, whereas C. fer-ruginea has light green, papery, adaxially pubescent leaflets that are attenuate basally and acute to acuminate and not pungent apically. Moreover, although their general distribution patterns are the same, there is no sympatry within individual populations. However, a more meaningful evaluation cannot be made until more material has been studied from more populations throughout the range. Chinese plants of C. miquelii have been misidentified as C. siamensis Miquel by some authors.

Dioecious plants up to 4 m tall, usually unbranched. Leaves forming a crown at the top of the stem, pinnate. Male cone terminal, 25 ‑45 cm long, elongated,

Trunk to 3(-8) m × 45(-95) cm, base and sometimes distal part with numerous adventitious lateral branches or bulbils, apex tomentose; bark gray-black, scaly. Leaves 40-100 or more, 1-pinnate, 0.7-1.4(-1.8) m × 20-25(-28) cm; petiole subtetragonal in cross section, 10-20 cm, with 6-18 spines along each side; leaf blade oblong- or elliptic-lanceolate, strongly "V"-shaped in cross section, recurved, brown tomentose when young; leaflets in 60-150 pairs, horizontally inserted at ca. 45° above rachis, not glaucous when mature, straight to subfalcate, 10-20 cm × 4-7 mm, leathery, sparsely pubescent abaxially, base decurrent, margin strongly recurved, apex acuminate, pungent. Cataphylls triangular, 4-5 × 1.5-2.3 cm, densely brown tomentose, apex acuminate. Pollen cones pale yellow, ovoid-cylindric, 30-60 × 8-15 cm; microsporophylls narrowly cuneate, 3.5-6 × 1.7-2.5 cm, apex rounded-truncate, cuspidate. Megasporophylls yellow to pale brown, 14-22 cm, densely tomentose; stalk 7-12 cm; sterile blade ovate to narrowly so, 6-11 × 4-7 cm, deeply laciniate, with 21-35 lobes 1-3 cm; ovules 2 or 3 on each side of stalk, densely pale brown tomentose. Seeds 2(-5), orange to red, obovoid or ellipsoid, somewhat compressed, (3-)4-5 × 2.5-3.5 cm, sparsely hairy; sclerotesta not grooved on sides. Pollination May-Jul, seed maturity Sep-Oct.

Trunk generally subterranean, often ellipsoid or abruptly tapered apically, sometimes to 60 × 20 cm above ground; bark white-gray, nearly smooth toward base of trunk. Leaves 25-40, 1-pinnate, 50-100 × 15-22 cm; petiole subterete, 10-20 cm, with 0-8 spines along each side of apical part; leaf blade oblong, flat; leaflets in 60-100 pairs, longitudinally inserted at ca. 90° to rachis, often overlapping, straight, 13-18 × 1.4-1.8 cm, thick, leathery, sparsely red-brown tomentose abaxially when young, later becoming dark green and glabrous, midvein nearly flat adaxially, raised abaxially, base usually truncate, decurrent, sometimes contracted, margin flat or only slightly revolute, apex mucronate, pungent at maturity. Cataphylls triangular, 3-4 × 1-1.3 cm, brown tomentose, apex soft. Pollen cones ovoid-fusiform, 20-30 × 6-8 cm; microsporophylls broadly cuneate, 1.5-3 × 1.2-1.5 cm, apical, sterile part subrhombic, thickened, densely pale brown tomentose, margin inconspicuously toothed, apex with short, upcurved mucro. Megasporophylls more than 30, tightly grouped, 8-14 cm, tawny tomentose when young, later glabresent; stalk 4.5-7.5 cm; sterile blade rhombic-ovate, 3.5-5.5 × 3-5 cm, margin pectinate, with 17-31 subulate lobes 1-2.5 cm, terminal lobe subulate, 3-4 cm; ovules 2 or 3 on each side of stalk, glabrous. Seeds 2-4, yellowish when fresh, brown when dry, obovoid or subglobose, 2-2.8 × 1.8-2.5 cm, apex mucronate; sclerotesta smooth. Pollination Mar-Apr, seed maturity Aug-Oct.

Distribution: Native to S. Japan, widely cultivated elsewhere.

Fujian (Lianjiang Xian, Ningde Xian, and some islands) [S Japan (Kyushu, Ryukyu Islands)]

W Guangxi [N Vietnam]

Grown outdoors or in green houses as an ornamental. The pith contains starch and is said to be carcinogenic. Vegetative propagation is by bulbils. Male plants not known from Pakistan.

Thickets on hillsides on islands, sparse forests on mainland; 100-500 m.

Semishaded, rocky crevices in broad-leaved forests in limestone mountains, often on N-facing slopes; 200-500 m.

Cycas brevipinnata Hung T. Chang & al.; C. longisporophylla F. N. Wei; C. septemsperma Hung T. Chang & al.; C. sexseminifera F. N. Wei; C. spiniformis J. Y. Liang; Epicycas miquelii (Warburg) de Laubenfels.