Metamorphosis of an ancient plant (Cyca) pics

[cyprusmax47]

It is amazing how much a Cyca palm changes within 10 month. This is a photo from last June when there appeared a flower on one of my Cycas.


Nothing much happened in summer time, and in October the flower looked like that..


In November one could see now the seed pods ripening


Six month later in April new leaves appeared..


and after only 3 weeks later it looked ever so impressive..


and blend in well with all the other plants


Max

[cyprusmax47]

on top of it: there is a side shoot growing at the bottom and I will remove the baby soon to another place..

[smudger]

Max that is one beautiful plant, poisonous or not!

Love your pics and the mine of information you provide x

[cyprusmax47]

Max that is one beautiful plant, poisonous or not!

Love your pics and the mine of information you provide x

Thanks for your comments Jacs.

This plant belongs to the oldest plants on earth and first members of this fern palm family are 300 mio years old. Palaeobotanic research tells us that the today existing 300 different kinds of palm ferns are at least 12 mio years old.

30 years ago this cycas revoluta was the most expensive plant you could find in the garden centers of Paphos when it had a decent size stem. I remember that I bought one in a container, 1/3 the size of the one on my photo, and they charged me 300 CYP (>500 Euro) in 1987...

Max

[Lofos-5]

Last year we visited Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town - an absolutely unique place with one of the largest biodiversities in the world.

There are some very unique Cyca plants there - as a matter of fact there is one claimed to be the last one of its species (completely fenced-in these days). If you ever are in Cape Town - this is a garden not be missed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirstenbo ... cal_Garden
https://www.sanbi.org/gardens/kirstenbosch/

Poaching of animals is well known - but trade in endagered trees like these is as severe but not as well publicised:

https://www.iol.co.za/news/cycad-thieve ... ts-1733630

A.

[cyprusmax47]

Thank you Andreas for the links. One of them shows a photo from a walkway, and the Kato Paphos half finished construction could be a copy of that

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirstenbo ... osch_1.jpg

Max

[Lofos-5]

Thank you Andreas for the links. One of them shows a photo from a walkway, and the Kato Paphos half finished construction could be a copy of that

- it is a canopy walk which is really a quite a nice experience - the one in Kirstenbosch is not very high and accessible by wheel chairs as well (and the views towards the Table Mountain and the wine growing regions are sensational).

I remember climbing into a canopy walk in the jungle of Temburong in Brunei (where the jungles are largely intact unlike neighbouring Sabah and Sarawak where lots have been chopped down for palm oil plantations) - the mighty trees of the Borneo jungle must be more than 30 meters in height and it was rather scary! Incidentally, a fact that I have not forgotten is that the biodiversity in the canopy of a rainforest is higher than on ground level. See some photos below.

canopy - 1.jpg (130.26 KiB) Viewed 2699 times

canopy - 2.jpg (150.78 KiB) Viewed 2699 times

canopy - 3.jpg (137.99 KiB) Viewed 2699 times

The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew near London, also a must see, have a very nice canopy walk as well by the way (under the flight path of Heathrow so even plan spotters get something out of it...)!

Kew - 1.jpg (138.37 KiB) Viewed 2699 times

A.

[Dominic]

I would hate to be up there in a gale. Fascinating photos. Thanks.