Cycad cones and flushes

[Tracy]

A pair of Cycas thouarsii, the male flushing the main caudex and a couple of pups at the base, and the female still holding the seeds from it's pollination two summers back.  If I remember correctly, the male pictured was the one I pulled the pollen off, but it may have been a different male.

[Palm Tree Jim]

An updated flushing picture.

 

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

An updated flushing picture.

Never can tire of seeing your E latifrons.  Those lower leaflets look like chunky butterflies.  I hope you find out it is a she someday!

[Palm Tree Jim]

Thanks Tracy. This is my first flush with this cycad.

It certainly would be nice if it turns out to be a female. My guess is that I have years before the reveal party.

 

[Tracy]

Looks like my very plumose and stacked Encephalartos turneri boy is taking some time off from pushing cones to focus on a nice full flush.  Can't say I'm disappointed to see this flush.  I love this compact version of E turneri!

[CodyORB]

On 5/9/2009 at 9:10 PM, Urban Rainforest said:

Here is my E. Kisambo that I bought as a tiny seedling. It now boast a beach ball size caudex and fronds over 8 ft. long. This is the first year that it has coned. So far I can see the tops of 3 cones emerging. Would you say it's a male?

How long did it take to reach that size from a seedling!?

[Gas man]

I know its just a edule, but its 21 leafs in this flush. Im new to this so I'm pretty excited to say the least. 

[Tracy]

I noticed there was something different about the flush on this Cycas thouarsii x cupida hybrid as soon as the green began to emerge from the tan/orange of the caudex.  I used my phone camera to get a better view of what was happening on the backside of the flush, and confirmed it is pushing out a couple of megasporophylls with the flush.  I'm a bit relieved it is a female, as this plant is right off our bedroom and my wife hates the smell of the male Cycas thouarsii.  If it had coned male, I wouldn't be surprised if she had required that I move it further away from the house.

My frustration right now is that I don't have any male Cycas pollen, with three female cycas in some stage of receptivity Cycas debaoensis, Cycas tropophylla x micholitzii and now this C thouarsii x cupida.

[Palm Tree Jim]

From this mornings rain.

 

[Palm Tree Jim]

[Palm Tree Jim]

[GeneAZ]

[Tracy]

3 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

I was having trouble identifying... At first I thought maybe quadruple male longifolius or something completely different in the eugene complex.  Perhaps Encephalartos nubimontanus.  From the top angle it is hard to tell if the scales are closed as in most female cones or open like male.  I'm sure from the side angle it is pretty obvious if these are male or female.  Not enough difference in leaflet color on tops and bottoms to be a blue or grey longifolius from what I can see.  Time to come clean....

[Palm Tree Jim]

1 hour ago, Tracy said:

I was having trouble identifying... At first I thought maybe quadruple male longifolius or something completely different in the eugene complex.  Perhaps Encephalartos nubimontanus.  From the top angle it is hard to tell if the scales are closed as in most female cones or open like male.  I'm sure from the side angle it is pretty obvious if these are male or female.  Not enough difference in leaflet color on tops and bottoms to be a blue or grey longifolius from what I can see.  Time to come clean....

Nubi complex.

[Tracy]

2 minutes ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Nubi complex.

Male or female?  Alternative to answering the question, you can make it a little more challenging by giving the profile shot of the cones... that should be sufficient.

[cainester]

New flushes from the covid stay at home

[Palm Tree Jim]

13 hours ago, Tracy said:

Male or female?  Alternative to answering the question, you can make it a little more challenging by giving the profile shot of the cones... that should be sufficient.

To early to tell...at least for me.

But I will try to get a decent profile picture and maybe someone can shed light on the sex for me.

[Tracy]

15 hours ago, cainester said:

Nice selection, looks like your Encephalartos are letting loose with the flushes now.  What is the cycad above?  It reminds me of my E (arenarius x horridus) x woodii hybrid from George Sparkman.

[cainester]

5 hours ago, Tracy said:

Nice selection, looks like your Encephalartos are letting loose with the flushes now.  What is the cycad above?  It reminds me of my E (arenarius x horridus) x woodii hybrid from George Sparkman.

i dont remember if i got this from george or if i got this from maurice a while back.  i do remember it was a cross arenarius and others,  but it was so many years back.  it has definitely picked up in growth over the last 3 years though.  

[Merlyn]

Here's a 2-fer in my nursery area!  Dioon Merolae 4 leaf flush on the left and E. Natalensis x Arenarius on the right.  The Dioon was a frondless one from ChuckG, he said he wouldn't sell it until it showed signs of being alive.  Fortunately for me I showed up to buy some other stuff and it had a couple of fronds just starting to peek out!  The Nat x Arenarius was from "plantmanz," he sells a whole ton of interesting hybrids. 

[rprimbs]

I have a little E. horridus x E. longifolius.  I know some people will argue, "Why bother, they look just like E. trispinosus.". But I think they look kinda cool.  At least when they get a little bigger!

[Palm Tree Jim]

Made a trip to the San Diego Zoo today and look what I found.

[GeneAZ]

Now it's settled in quite nicely since 2016.

[Palm Tree Jim]

1 hour ago, GeneAZ said:

Now it's settled in quite nicely since 2016.

That’s a new flush as well.

In addition, the latifrons is flushing as well there. It has looked terrible lately, but with a new flush let’s hope for a drastic improvement.

[Firepalm]

In honor of George.  This is the first cycad I bought from him many years ago.  Blue Longifolius x Horridus. 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Ceratozamia kuesteriana cone and a fuzzy villosus flush.  

[Manalto]

They're weird and wonderful! 

[DippyD]

On 6/30/2020 at 6:11 AM, Palm Tree Jim said:

To early to tell...at least for me.

But I will try to get a decent profile picture and maybe someone can shed light on the sex for me.

Jim, appears to be male. If you don’t have any use for the pollen i may have something.

[Palm Tree Jim]

On 6/29/2020 at 4:11 PM, Tracy said:

Male or female?  Alternative to answering the question, you can make it a little more challenging by giving the profile shot of the cones... that should be sufficient.

I am leaning towards male.....

 

[Tracy]

1 minute ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

I am leaning towards male.....

Based on how those scales are open as opposed to more closed off as in female Encephalartos cones, I would be willing to bet you are correct.  You should collect the pollen and throw it in the freezer if you don't have anything to pollinate now.  You never know when you may get a female coning and find that none of the corresponding male plants want to cone that year.

[Meangreen94z]

A few fresh flushes, mostly Australian.....
Cycas Cairnsiana:

Cycas Desolata:

Macrozamia “Blue” Moorei:

Cycas Cupida:

Cycas Ophiolitica:

Cycas Angulata:Encephalartos Altensteinii:

[Tracy]

On 6/30/2020 at 5:49 PM, rprimbs said:

I have a little E. horridus x E. longifolius.  I know some people will argue, "Why bother, they look just like E. trispinosus.". But I think they look kinda cool.  At least when they get a little bigger!

Definitely cool and with the longifolius in the mix tend to have longer leaves and a bit different structure I think.  I would agree with you that it's worthy of having in the garden which is why I have a little one too.

On a different note, specifically Cycas thouarsii x cupida, my female is pushing out some megasporaphylls with the current flush and yesterday I noticed the other one I have is pushing up a cone.  Hooray, just hope they are in sync on the timing!  The pollination will be a little incestuous as these came from the same batch of seeds and same parent plant..

[Meangreen94z]

My Cycas Plataphylla is producing a fresh blue flush, sorry for the lame container.

[Meangreen94z]

22 minutes ago, Tracy said:

Definitely cool and with the longifolius in the mix tend to have longer leaves and a bit different structure I think.  I would agree with you that it's worthy of having in the garden which is why I have a little one too.

On a different note, specifically Cycas thouarsii x cupida, my female is pushing out some megasporaphylls with the current flush and yesterday I noticed the other one I have is pushing up a cone.  Hooray, just hope they are in sync on the timing!  The pollination will be a little incestuous as these came from the same batch of seeds and same parent plant..

 

 

If you can produce seed, I would definitely be interested. I bought 5 from RPS and only had 1 germinate. It’s slowly chugging along.

[rprimbs]

7 hours ago, Tracy said:

Definitely cool and with the longifolius in the mix tend to have longer leaves and a bit different structure I think.  I would agree with you that it's worthy of having in the garden which is why I have a little one too.

On a different note, specifically Cycas thouarsii x cupida, my female is pushing out some megasporaphylls with the current flush and yesterday I noticed the other one I have is pushing up a cone.  Hooray, just hope they are in sync on the timing!  The pollination will be a little incestuous as these came from the same batch of seeds and same parent plant..

Wow, those look pretty good.  I need to take better care of my little Cycas thouarsii x cupida.  I will probably move it to a better spot. George Sparkman did some pretty cool crosses.

[Meangreen94z]

Plataphylla progressing 

[GDLWyverex]

My Encephalartos ferox is giving me two huge female cones. Unfortunately non of my other encephalartos are yet of coning age to give me pollen to pollinate them once they open up.
 

Sure is impressive to see but fearsome to touch


Richard

[James Norcal]

These two middelburgensis went off at the same time.  Before and today pics. 
 

[Sr. Califas]

Cycas rev x dabao

[Sr. Califas]

Mr. Sparkman called this one "XXX." I believe it is Enc. (leh x are) x spineless tri.

 

Flush starts with a nice purple tint.

Goes through a quick gray-green phase.

Finishes with the type of blue that we all like.