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Cycads in South Africa. Cycads / ˈ s aɪ k æ d z / are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters ...
Encephalartos is a genus of cycad native to Africa. Several species of Encephalartos are commonly referred to as bread trees, [2] bread palms [3] or kaffir bread, [4] since a bread-like starchy food can be prepared from the centre of the stem.
The ingestion of raw cycad seeds by an animal can lead to death and cause nausea and diarrhea in humans as well as death in some cases. [15] Cycad leaves are also dangerous due to β-Methylamino-L-alanine and have been recorded to cause hind end paralysis and death in cattle. [19]
Extracting edible starch from the sago cycad requires special care due to the poisonous nature of cycads. [11] Cycad sago is used for many of the same purposes as palm sago. Sago is extracted from the sago cycad by cutting the pith from the stem, root and seeds of the cycads, grinding the pith to a coarse flour and then washing it carefully and ...
Cycas is a genus of cycad, and the only genus in the family Cycadaceae with all other genera of cycad being divided between the Stangeriaceae and Zamiaceae families. Cycas circinalis, a species endemic to India, was the first cycad species to be described in western literature, and is the type species of the genus.
As with all cycads this species is dioecious. Male plants may carry up to 15 cones, whereas only one or two occur on the females. The seeds, embedded in bright-red flesh are eaten and distributed by the purple-crested lourie (Tauraco porphyreolophus) and by the trumpeter hornbill (Bycanistes bucinator). [3]
Cardboard cycads can only be reproduced by the fleshy, brightly crimson-colored seeds produced by the female plants. The germination process is very slow and difficult to achieve in cultivation; as a result, many plants sold for horticultural use are illegally collected in the wild, leading to the species being classified as Endangered .
Cycads all over the world are in decline, with four species on the brink of extinction and seven species have fewer than 100 plants left in the wild. [ 2 ] 23,420 species of vascular plant have been recorded in South Africa, making it the sixth most species-rich country in the world and the most species-rich country on the African continent.