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Cycads are often recognized for their ancient roots. However, their notoriety extends beyond just being old. With their peculiar, tree-like appearance, cycads present a wealth of surprising and quirky facts.
From strange biology to unique historical moments, common misunderstandings, and even world records, cycads are full of surprises. For instance, there's the story of a cycad monument destroyed by scientists and the surprising ways these plants show respect for their siblings. Here are ten intriguing facts about cycads that you may not have heard before.
10. They're Not Actually Living Fossils
While creatures like the coelacanth and horseshoe crab are often referred to as 'living fossils' due to their long survival with minimal changes, the same label is frequently applied to cycads. However, this comparison oversimplifies the true narrative of these plants.
Indeed, cycads are astonishingly ancient, with the first specimens emerging 280 million years ago, long before the first T-Rex roamed the Earth. But here's the twist: these are not the same plants we see today. A large-scale genetic study conducted by Harvard University discovered that the cycads we know today are only 12 million years old.
Because of this fragmented evolutionary path, cycads cannot be categorized as living fossils. Rather, they are better described as evolutionary comebacks, having endured many cycles of extinction and resurgence throughout history, with ancient species fading and new ones emerging.
9. South Africa Combats Poaching with Isotopes
South Africa is a hotspot for cycads, home to 38 native species. Of these, 12 are critically endangered, and 3 have gone extinct in the wild. One of the major threats to their conservation comes from the landscaping industry.
Homeowners often seek out rare, large cycads and are willing to pay steep prices, calculated based on their size. A particularly rare and tall cycad can fetch up to R400,000 (around $22,266). This financial incentive has led poachers to target wild cycads and raid botanical gardens for valuable specimens.
In order to prosecute buyers, authorities need to prove that the cycad was illegally taken from the wild in South Africa. This becomes a challenge, as poachers often circumvent traditional identification methods, such as microchipping the plants, making it difficult to trace their origins.
In 2014, the University of Cape Town and the South African National Botanical Institute collaborated on an innovative solution, using radiocarbon dating and stable isotopes as a reliable technique to identify trafficked cycads. This method involves extracting stem tissue from a suspicious plant and analyzing its chemical signature to determine its place of origin.
This technique, which is already employed to trace the origins of bank notes, explosives, and cocaine, has emerged as the most promising system for tagging and identifying cycad specimens.
8. Cycads Generate Heat During Reproduction
Previously, scientists believed that cycads relied on wind to carry pollen from male to female plants. However, recent research revealed that their reproduction process is far more complex, involving flying insects called thrips rather than simple wind pollination.
Cycad courtship starts with the male. Since thrips feed on cycad pollen, the male will advertise that he has plenty of yummy dust by releasing an enticing odor that attracts these insects. While they feast, they get covered in pollen–and that’s when the cycad kicks them out. The plant heats up to produce and emit a toxic chemical that leaves the thrips with no choice but to flee for their lives.
Next, the female cycad pulls the wool over the insects’ eyes. She pretends to be a pollen-filled male by releasing the same attractive odor. But once the thrips land, they find no food, only egg-filled cones, which they unwittingly fertilize by rubbing pollen everywhere as they search for a snack inside the cones.
7. Cycads Caused a Mystery Disease
For years, the Chamorro people of Guam suffered from a mysterious and devastating brain disease. Symptoms included weakness, paralysis, and dementia. Up to a third of every village was affected, and with so many people developing ALS-PDC (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-Parkinsonian dementia complex), the rush was on to identify the cause.
Since Chamorro populations outside of Guam didn’t have the same high number of cases, researchers suspected that something in the island’s environment was causing ALS-PDC. More precisely, the local habit of eating flying foxes. These massive bats are boiled whole and served at celebrations, feasts, and religious events. The bats, in turn, love to eat cycad seeds—and this was a red flag.
Cycad seeds contain neurotoxins harmful to humans. Bats, which feed on these seeds, only excrete about 10% of the toxins, leaving their bodies contaminated. This could explain why men are three times more likely to contract the disease, as they often consume the entire bat, including the brains, wings, and fur, while women typically only eat the breast meat.
6. A Cycad That Grows in Trees
Epiphytes are plants that thrive in the air, using their roots to attach to other plants, particularly tall trees. This clever strategy allows smaller plants in shaded forests to elevate themselves, gaining access to more sunlight.
Cycads may appear too bulky to resemble botanical monkeys, yet surprisingly, two species are epiphytic. One of them, Zamia pseudoparasitica, can be found in Panama. For years, scientists had numerous questions: How did it manage to spread seeds in the trees? How did those seeds find the perfect spots in the tree canopy to grow?
In 2019, a research team set up camera traps at three locations where Z. pseudoparasitica was found. After months of observation, the cameras recorded a variety of animals visiting the cycads. However, only one species was seen stuffing its cheeks with seeds and running off with them, solving the mystery of how the seeds were dispersed.
The creature responsible was the northern olingo, a charming mammal known for hopping between branches and dispersing seeds around the forest tree canopy. It's also likely that these olingos are storing the seeds in various spots at the treetops, some of which may provide the perfect conditions for new cycad seedlings to take root.
5. The Cycad Monument That Ended in Tragedy
In the 1890s, a stunning piece of prehistory was uncovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Erosion revealed a vast fossilized cycadeoid forest that dated back to the Cretaceous period, roughly 120 million years ago. Recognizing its immense value, President Warren G. Harding declared the site a national monument in 1922.
The goal of the Fossil Cycad National Monument was clear: to protect these precious fossils. Yet, to say it failed in its mission would be an understatement. The moment the sanctuary was established, the looting began.
But the culprits weren’t poachers or tourists. No, this time it was scientists themselves who caused the damage. Thousands of them traveled to the site to dig up ancient specimens and take them back to their research labs or museums.
A few years later, the Fossil Cycad National Monument had so few fossils left that authorities saw no reason to maintain the 320-acre site. On September 1, 1957, the United States Congress officially voted to dissolve the monument.
4. Cycads Rescued a Japanese Island
Although cycads are toxic to humans, the people of Amami Oshima, a Japanese island, have been consuming this dangerous plant for centuries without fatalities. This is not a reckless pursuit, but rather a survival strategy. Throughout the harsh periods of samurai rule and during both World Wars, the island's inhabitants faced severe shortages of supplies. During these times, cycads became an essential food source, saving the locals from starvation.
The process to make cycads edible involves cutting the trunk to access the flesh inside. The pith is ground into flour and then washed and dried multiple times to remove toxins. This process can take up to four weeks before the flour is safe to consume. Once ready, the starch is either mixed with rice or transformed into noodles.
This ancient practice is gradually disappearing. Most of the island’s residents are elderly and believe there is no need to pass on the knowledge of preparing cycad flour. While the elders honor its life-saving history, the preparation is time-consuming, and harvesting can be dangerous due to venomous snakes. Moreover, with times of abundance, the islanders now prefer quick and easy meals, like boiling two-minute noodles, rather than undertaking the labor-intensive task of making cycad noodles.
3. They Honor Their Kin
It is well known that some plant species can identify their relatives. In an attempt to determine if cycads share this characteristic, the University of Guam conducted a simple yet insightful experiment. The chosen plant for this study was Cycas micronesica, an endangered species native to the western Pacific islands of Micronesia.
In the study, researchers planted baby cycads in pairs within containers, each box containing limited soil. This restriction was designed to encourage the plants to interact with each other as they grew. Would they peacefully coexist due to their familial bonds, or would they compete for root space as if they were unrelated?
Surprisingly, seedlings from the same mother plant seemed to recognize each other’s roots and exhibited less aggressive growth, even while competing for the limited resources available. Essentially, they took care of one another. However, this mutual cooperation did not extend to unrelated plants. When placed together with unfamiliar seedlings, the competition intensified.
2. One Species Is Simply a Clone
In 1895, a botanist by the name of John Medley ventured into South Africa's Ngoye Forest, where he discovered a new cycad species. He thoroughly searched the area for more examples but found none.
Medley probably came across the very last of its kind, a cycad later named Encephalartos woodii. Determined to protect this extraordinarily rare species, conservationists returned to the site for decades, taking cuttings and spreading its ‘offspring’ worldwide. Today, these specimens are so precious that some botanical gardens house their E. woodii in cages, complete with alarm systems to deter poachers.
In 1916, the original cycad was moved to a safe location in Pretoria, South Africa. This marked the official extinction of E. woodii in the wild.
Researchers remain hopeful that there’s still a hidden specimen out there—preferably a female. The original cycad is male, and all the cuttings are clones, meaning the current population of E. woodii consists entirely of males. The discovery of a female would allow the species to reproduce naturally once more and strengthen its genetic diversity.
1. The Oldest Potted Plant Happens to Be a Cycad
In 1755, Francis Masson was appointed as a plant collector for the Kew Botanical Gardens in the UK. He journeyed to South Africa and dug up an Eastern Cape giant cycad (Encephalartos altensteinii). Given that E. altensteinii can live up to 2,500 years, it’s no surprise that the Kew cycad remains alive nearly 270 years after Masson brought it to England.
Once repotted and settled into its new environment, the cycad experienced some remarkable history. It witnessed the French Revolution, the invention of the first steam engine, both World Wars, and humans landing on the Moon. Astonishingly, it endured around 30 powerful bombings that hit Kew during World War II.
In 2009, the botanical garden undertook the immense task of repotting the now colossal cycad. The project, requiring three months of preparation, was no small feat, as the plant weighed more than a ton and reached approximately 14 feet (4.2 m) tall. Today, this cherished cycad is thought to be the oldest potted plant in the world, and if all goes well, it will retain that distinction for centuries to come.
