Tag Archives: Cycads

Cycads – Living Fossil

An ancient lineage of plants that resembles palm trees and are known as cycads once flourished on the Earth. Their descendants of these ancient plants were thought to be “living fossils” that were relatively unchanged since the Age of Dinosaurs.Now scientists find that despite their old-school looks, modern cycads are not actually living fossils at all, but totally different from their bygone relatives. Genetic analysis revealed that cycads only recently emerged sometime between five and 10 million years ago. In fact, the cycads aren’t so much living…

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Cycads Garden in CFSS

Cycads are vascular, seed plants that are palm-like and are called Sago Palms. The leaves are found in a cluster at the tops of the trunks. Cycads were first to show “true secondary growth” along plant’s evolutionary history. Class: CycadopsidaOrder: CycadalesFamily: CycadaceaeGenera: Cycas / Zamia / Microcycas/ Dioon etc. Representative seed and pollen cones for all cycad genera. a) Bowenia serrulata seed cone b) Bowenia spectabilis pollen cone c) Ceratozamia decumbens seed cone d) Ceratozamia decumbens pollen cone e) Cycas couttsiana seed cone f) Cycas…

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JURASSIC – Age of Cycads

Cycads were an abundant component of the flora in the Mesozoic. During the Triassic and Jurassic, the time of their greatest diversity, cycads made up 20% of the world flora. For this reason the Mesozoic, and especially the Jurassic, is often referred to as the “Age of Cycads”. During this time, they were an important component of the vegetation, not simply in numbers of species, but in size and number of individuals. Cycads were the trees and shrubs which, along with the conifers and Ginkgoales,…

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Cycads and cycadeoids

Cycads and the extinct Cycadeoids (Bennettitales) are closely related gymnosperms. The basic difference between the two is that cones occur at the apex top of the stem in living cycads [Figure 1], but are embedded among the leaf bases in cycadeoids [Figure 2]. Cycadeoids are easily recognized by the diamond-shaped leaf bases of the trunk.  In many well-preserved specimens, you’ll see the cones of a Cycadeoid among the leaf bases. Figure 1. Cycadalean structure (from Tidwell, 1998)Figure 2. Cycadeoidalean structure (from Tidwell, 1998) Bennettiales from the Sedgwick…

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