Cycad Seeds

Some years instead of sending up new fronds, a Sago Palm will 'bloom.' The male cycads make a cone. Female cycads make a round structure. If there's a male plant within a reasonable distance so the wind can blow pollen to it, eventually the female structure is full of orange seeds.

  Hiding in that soft, fluffy nest are dozens of orange colored seeds bigger than the end of my thumb.
The orange coating on them inhibits growth, so they must be soaked and scraped before planting.
It takes months before the seed coat cracks and a root emerges, then a tiny frond. Exciting.

A squirrel destroyed my first successful seedling when I put it outside for the summer.

I started over when there were more seeds. These seedlings are 2 years old, a long wait.

 This one has the center tuft typical of a cycad from which the fronds grow.

This one still has the seed attached.

I have not decided whether I'll try to grow more cycads from this year's seeds. There's a little new plant  growing beside an azalea I planted nearby the original cycad that I think came from a seed I disturbed when I dug there. I may try just putting them into the ground, using enough seeds so the squirrels and I can share.

Another way to grow cycads is by division of the pups growing around a plant. I successfully rooted 4 pups off Mrs. Cotele's cycad one year, then destroyed one by tugging it out of the pot to look at the roots. I put the pup into the ground, anyhow. This summer the remains of that pup put out a new frond. I still don't know whether the pups that did root and grow are male or female, they've never bloomed.He-Who-Mows ran over the smallest one with the mower. I'd cut the cold-bitten fronds off and I guess he thought that meant I didn't want it despite it having a little clump in the center. I'm waiting to see what comes from the roots next spring, if anything. It was cut awfully close to the ground.

Incubating Fossils

My big Cycad has this huge nest in the center.

There should be dozens of seeds inside this thing, fertilized 

by other cycads miles away by pollen on the wind or by insects.

Scientific paper on pollination of Australian cycads

Last time it had seeds, I planted a few just to see if they were indeed fertile. One of them miraculously sprouted. I had a seedling that lasted until I put it outside for the summer. Squirrels got hold of it.

Soaking and cleaning seeds. 

All the orange part must be removed.

First Sprout. It takes a while. The seed at top

never sprouted. I was tickled to see ONE.

Eventually it had four little fronds and was potted up in a clay pot before the squirrel got hold of it and broke it off at the root.

Now is my opportunity to start over with fresh seeds. It is not a small undertaking.


Meantime, some years back I dug pups from around the huge cycad of my neighbor, Mrs. Cotele. One I broke the root after it sprouted in my eagerness to make certain they were rooting. They were.

Cycad with the cone in the distance.

Near view is pup I rooted in 2011.

One has gained some size and is being overtaken by Hydrageas. I will likely leave the whole mess until spring and cut the hydrangeas back when they show new growth.

Two pups that were smaller and slower growing I put at the outside corners of the oval lawn this past spring. Tuesday I noticed that one has new leaves, not a usual thing for fall but not unheard of.

This one recovered from a tractor tire running over it when we were doing some work; I caged it to keep it safe. There's a small Brugmansia behind it that did not gain size nor bloom this year. Maybe next year they can duke it out for space.

A final look at the female cone with a tiny green anole visiting. He didn't linger for more pics. Seeds will be ripe sometime in the Spring.

I am fascinated by Cycads but I might not make Cycad bread from the seeds nor dance on the oval lawn between the plants nor set them on fire.

Yolngu people produce texts about cycads in several forms: dance sequences, songs and graphic representations. Westerners produce scientific texts.

Cycad Seedling and Sad Specimens

Please look at the Cycad Seedling first and then you can leave before you look at the frostbitten Sagos if you don't like ugly.

Can you see the tiny beginning of more fronds between the 

two green stems? The round part is the seed it came from.

I wrote about this last year when my big Cycad had a nest full of seeds.

I didn't think it would work, but one actually sprouted and is growing.

You can read about the seed starting process HERE.

Another view with one of my new pots with 

Purple Heart cuttings.

This is my first Cycad. It's about 15 years old, came as a pup from Nurse Gwen's mother-in-law. On the right is the beginning of this year's fronds, a tiny lump in the center. The fronds around it are cold damaged. I read to leave the damaged fronds until they die completely.

I won't have to leave fronds on the smaller Cycads that I grew from pups from my late neighbor, Mrs. Cotele. Cold turned them mostly tan and dead.

This little Cycad has 11 fronds and a few have green stems but the rest is dead. It looks as if it may have a bunch emerge in the spring. I am hopeful that everybody puts out new growth and we have a glorious Spring. Did I read that it's hardly more than a month away, Spring?

The Neighbors Offered Me Some Pups -- Cycas revoluta

The winter was not kind to cycads in this area. Mine had many winter-damaged fronds.

Opinions on how to deal with the damage vary.

My neighbor called last week to offer me some 'pups' from her Cycad.

The yardman had pruned it she said and there were more than a dozen 'babies' 

she was giving to various neighbors 

I went armed with a trowel, expecting to find teacup-sized pups at most.

Instead, they were the size of basketballs!

I'll have to go back with big buckets and a spade.

It takes months for the pups to root and put on new growth.

The neighbors prune off all the old shoots to encourage a pretty new

topknot of new fronds at the top on a fat bare trunk.

I prefer more judicious pruning that leaves as much green as possible. 

My Sago has no pups; it has had seeds. They were not fertilized and did not germinate.

The remains of the 'nest' where the seeds were remains. 

A few stray fronds grow straight out of the ground. 

There's a little column of developing fronds in the center.

Looking ahead to June:



Sago mid-June 2010 when new fronds sprouted.