1.000 Cycas L.

Dioecious evergreen, mostly palm-like plants; trunk columnar, clothed with bases of fallen fronds; bark often thickened and roughened. Cataphylls prominent, alternate with the leaves, hairy; apex often rigid and spiny. Fronds borne at the apex of the trunk, 1(-3)-pinnately compound, spirally arranged, usually armed; base swollen and hairy; leaflets numerous, alternate to sub-opposite, sometimes dichotomously branched, margins usually entire. Pollen cones apical, cylindric or fusiform. Megasporophylls several to numerous, somewhat leaf-like, alternating with flushes of leaves. Seeds drupe-like, somewhat compressed, seed-coat 3-layered.

Derivation of name: from the Greek: kykas, a word found in Theophrastus, now thought to be an error for koikas meaning ‘palm trees’.

Worldwide: 116 species in East Africa, Madagascar, tropical Asia and Australia.

Zimbabwe: 4 cultivated taxa.