Cycad cones and flushes

[Meangreen94z]

My Cycas Angulata flushing for the second time in a month or so.

[GeneAZ]

5 hours ago, freakypalmguy said:

Also, my female taitungensis is getting close, wish I had something special to dust her with, I only have revoluta pollen

Beautiful trunk there!

 

 

[freakypalmguy]

1 hour ago, GeneAZ said:

 

Thank you Gene, I planted it in 2008 with a baseball sized caudex, it has been a great grower, it usually cones once and flushes twice a year.

[rprimbs]

I like how this Cycas revoluta x Cycas debaoensis looks in the shade.

[rprimbs]

Just now, rprimbs said:

I like how this Cycas revoluta x Cycas debaoensis looks in the shade.

Oops here is the picture

[rprimbs]

Here is a closer detail of on of the leaves.  This is a plant I got from George Sparkman 

[Tracy]

On 7/25/2021 at 6:04 AM, freakypalmguy said:

my female taitungensis is getting close, wish I had something special to dust her with,

I have Cycas thouarsii x cupida and Cycas thouarsii male cones which are getting close, but not ready to shed pollen yet.

[freakypalmguy]

3 hours ago, Tracy said:

I have Cycas thouarsii x cupida and Cycas thouarsii male cones which are getting close, but not ready to shed pollen yet.

Thank you Tracy, Either could be really interesting, I’ll let you know when my female starts to become receptive, and see where yours are at. We can do a 50/50 split.

[Tracy]

11 minutes ago, freakypalmguy said:

I’ll let you know when my female starts to become receptive, and see where yours are at

[Tracy]

Prolific Pollen Production on this Zamia standleyi.  A rather smallish cycad, but it's still got 5 cones it pushed this round, but no female Z standelyi in my garden to match it with.

[Benjamin D.]

Encephalartos caffer really coming into its own! It seems to like it here, doing well in heat and cold. Most importantly, it’s easy to pop inside during hard freezes.

[GeneAZ]

Nice humansdorp form there.  Makes massive roots like turnips.

[GeneAZ]

E. heenanii skips a few years.

[GeneAZ]

Zamia floridana thin leaf form from Fanning Meadows, I think.  Maybe Chrystal RIver.

[Tracy]

26 minutes ago, GeneAZ said:

E. heenanii skips a few years.

I guess that makes it a little more rewarding when it does pop another flush.  When you say a "few years", what is the normal interval for flushes, or is it just erratic.  Mine is still so small, it's hard to assess the interval.  It normally pushes two leaves sequentially every year for me (i.e. one immediately followed by a second or almost simultaneously, but only two leaves total per year).

Speaking of sequential leaf pushers, that is what this Macrozamia does consistently throughout it's growing season.  I think I acquired this as Macrozamia communis as a 3 by 9 liner many years ago.

[GeneAZ]

12 minutes ago, Tracy said:

I guess that makes it a little more rewarding when it does pop another flush.  When you say a "few years", what is the normal interval for flushes, or is it just erratic.  Mine is still so small, it's hard to assess the interval.  It normally pushes two leaves sequentially every year for me (i.e. one immediately followed by a second or almost simultaneously, but only two leaves total per year).

Speaking of sequential leaf pushers, that is what this Macrozamia does consistently throughout it's growing season.  I think I acquired this as Macrozamia communis as a 3 by 9 liner many years ago.

Yep, cycads are either "event" growers like Encephalartos and cycas; or they're more sequential growers starting in spring and continuing, more or less, until early winter.  My Macrozamia (I only have two species) do tend to sort of pause during the hottest summer temps of 110F-plus, then resume when things return to 105F or less.

My Heenanii grows every 3 years, usually.  It also really prefers rain water, in my experience.  It would probably like short daily fog baths,  since Dennis Heenan said that happened all the time at Pigg's Peak where he lived and had access to native plants.  If yours is seed grown, it will probably have a more forgiving behavior than my plant which is not seed grown. 

 

[Tracy]

45 minutes ago, GeneAZ said:

It would probably like short daily fog baths,  since Dennis Heenan said that happened all the time at Pigg's Peak where he lived and had access to native plants.  If yours is seed grown,

I get fog baths or marine layer baths all the time here, its the normal summer pattern in mornings and evenings.  Mine is seed grown and still in what I would consider a seedling stage of growth in that it's only pushing a couple of leaves per cycle.

[Jubaea_James760]

I have this Encephalartos I lost a tag to flush currently. Anyone recognize the orange leaf flush on this one? Or is it possible that it's cause but to much shade?

 

[Tracy]

26 minutes ago, Jubaea_James760 said:

I have this Encephalartos I lost a tag to flush currently. Anyone recognize the orange leaf flush on this one? Or is it possible that it's cause but to much shade?

While I don't recognize the species, there are a few Encephalartos that will push bronze or orange flushes, independent of sunlight.  One of my Encephalartos sclavoi's is actively pushing out a flush which is showing as a coral color at this stage, but will go to bronze and chocolate colors later.  Others have posted E ferox and E  hildebrandtii which have flushed in shades of bronze, orange or chocolate.  This E sclavoi is full summer sun from about 10am until shortly before the sun sets to the west over my house, so no correlation to lack of sunlight in the flush color.

[Jubaea_James760]

Nice flush! Looks a bit like cattails.

I thought at first it could have been a Msinganus x Arenarius hybrid but none of those currently flushing have this color flush. 

Thank you @Tracy

[Tracy]

Encephalartos kisambo flushing.  This was a bit slow to get established in my garden.  I got it as a 15 gallon size and planted it just under a decade ago,  but it's been flushing annually now for the last 5 years or so.  No cones yet, so don't know if it is a he or she.

[freakypalmguy]

21 hours ago, Tracy said:

While I don't recognize the species, there are a few Encephalartos that will push bronze or orange flushes, independent of sunlight.  One of my Encephalartos sclavoi's is actively pushing out a flush which is showing as a coral color at this stage, but will go to bronze and chocolate colors later.  Others have posted E ferox and E  hildebrandtii which have flushed in shades of bronze, orange or chocolate.  This E sclavoi is full summer sun from about 10am until shortly before the sun sets to the west over my house, so no correlation to lack of sunlight in the flush color.

Dang, that’s nice

[freakypalmguy]

Separated a big offset from this horridus about 4 months ago, hopefully this isn’t its last gasp of life.  Male or Female 

[Tracy]

13 hours ago, freakypalmguy said:

Separated a big offset from this horridus about 4 months ago, hopefully this isn’t its last gasp of life.  Male or Female 

I like to hold off on judgement, as I have a difficult time telling if they are elongated and will open up to be male or if it's just the "crowning" of a female emerging.  Post again in a couple of weeks.  This one is definitely female although it looks a little elongated at this stage, I know from past years that it will fatten up as it continues to push out and get bigger.

[freakypalmguy]

2 hours ago, Tracy said:

I like to hold off on judgement, as I have a difficult time telling if they are elongated and will open up to be male or if it's just the "crowning" of a female emerging.  Post again in a couple of weeks.  This one is definitely female although it looks a little elongated at this stage, I know from past years that it will fatten up as it continues to push out and get bigger.

will do, I was leaning towards male and now seeing your confirmed female, I’m definitely leaning even farther 

[Tracy]

Some of the late to flush cycads are mid-flush about now, like this Encephalartos dyerianus.  It's hard to see, but in the second photo you can make out that this isn't limited to a single growth point.  I think the last time that I counted it appeared to have 7 distinct subterranean growth points which will eventually become 7 different caudex.  The largest is just about to emerge from the ground in the next couple of years.  This seems to really pull down given what appears to be mature length leaves now.

[Tracy]

5 hours ago, Tracy said:

Some of the late to flush cycads are mid-flush about now, like this Encephalartos dyerianus.

Perhaps a little different form of E dyerianus, this was acquired as an offset from a larger plant.  It was pretty slow to get established which isn't too unusual for offsets, but seems to have adapted the last 3 years.  Another full flush this summer which is still stretching out..

[Jubaea_James760]

Beautiful! I really like the single, straight leaf form! But the multiple clump is amazing to! Definitely a sucker for the Eugene-Maraisii complex ones! 

[Firepalm]

Whitelockii x Sclavoi throwing cones and a partial flush.  This one has coned now three years in a row.  

[Tracy]

48 minutes ago, Firepalm said:

Whitelockii x Sclavoi throwing cones and a partial flush.  This one has coned now three years in a row.  

I'm trying to recall whether you have male of female of this cross.  I have a known male, and an unknown which is pushing a cone out right now and I'm not sure if it's male or female.  The male pushed 4 cones out last year, which is not unusual for either sclavoi or whitelockii parents.  Thus far the one coning for the first time appears to be one lone centered cone.  From what I can see of both yours and mine, its tending more toward the sclavoi for size (length of leaves at least) rather than the whitelockii which is fine with me for where I have mine placed.

[Jubaea_James760]

Not much but thought it looked cute. Cycas Couttsiana. 

[Tracy]

13 hours ago, Jubaea_James760 said:

Not much but thought it looked cute. Cycas Couttsiana. 

While small today, it is rewarding when you can look back when they are much bigger and remember how tiny they were when you got them.  Each flush with an increase in leaf count seems like a major milestone.  The reason we grow these is for the pleasure of it after all, so enjoy; revel in the moment.  Great species too.

[GeneAZ]

On 8/13/2021 at 11:31 PM, Jubaea_James760 said:

Not much but thought it looked cute. Cycas Couttsiana. 

Couttsiana is gorgeous as adult, very blue!

[Scott W]

Cycas thourasii female... probably going to cross multifrondis on her.

 

[Jubaea_James760]

6 hours ago, GeneAZ said:

Couttsiana is gorgeous as adult, very blue!

I'm excited! Still on the hunt for a small Cairnsiana to go with it. 

[Firepalm]

On 8/13/2021 at 4:53 PM, Tracy said:

I'm trying to recall whether you have male of female of this cross.  I have a known male, and an unknown which is pushing a cone out right now and I'm not sure if it's male or female.  The male pushed 4 cones out last year, which is not unusual for either sclavoi or whitelockii parents.  Thus far the one coning for the first time appears to be one lone centered cone.  From what I can see of both yours and mine, its tending more toward the sclavoi for size (length of leaves at least) rather than the whitelockii which is fine with me for where I have mine placed.

Hey Tracy, this one is a confirmed male.  Has thrown 5 cones every time since it first started coning.  I have been very happy with the leaf structure on this plant and it definitely feels smaller in the leaf than a pure Whitelockii.   The caudex is huge at this point, probably 1.5 times the size of a basketball.  Honestly, I'm just happy that it is finally pushing new leaves for the first time in a few years.  

[Merlyn]

18 hours ago, Scott W said:

Cycas thourasii female... probably going to cross multifrondis on her.

I don't think I've ever seen a Thouarsii / Multifrondis cross.  I've seen plenty of Rev x Deb and varieties, but never a "Queen" type crossed with Debaoensis or Multifrondis.  That sounds neat, I wonder if it would retain the sort of upright "fountain" shape of a Rev x Deb, or what would happen?

Staying on the hybrid topic, here are flushes from a pair of Sclavoi (blue) x Ituriensis that I bought from IceBlueCycads a few years ago.  The first was out in the open and was flushing when we got a 28F frost, but it only slightly burned the fronds.  I'll have to move the big agave Neglecta that's encroaching from the right...  The second one was in a more sheltered spot, but not getting enough sun.  I moved it mid-flush, but it doesn't seem to care...yet!

[Scott W]

6 minutes ago, Merlyn said:

I don't think I've ever seen a Thouarsii / Multifrondis cross.  I've seen plenty of Rev x Deb and varieties, but never a "Queen" type crossed with Debaoensis or Multifrondis.  That sounds neat, I wonder if it would retain the sort of upright "fountain" shape of a Rev x Deb, or what would happen.

 

Yeah, I'm curious as well.  She wasn't ready yesterday,  the cone is still very tight and the megasporophylls not flexible, so only could access a handful of ovules.  Of course today it's raining so Will have to look tomorrow to see if she's loosened up at all.

I pollinated two Revoluta with multifrondis this year, as well as pollinating my multifrondis with pollen from a male triple hybrid (Rev x tai) x diannanensis (I did the reverse of this cross last year, just now seeing germination from it).  My Multifrondis produced a ton of pollen this year so I figured I'd use the rest of it.  It's either that or diannanensis...

[Tracy]

6 hours ago, Firepalm said:

Hey Tracy, this one is a confirmed male.  Has thrown 5 cones every time since it first started coning.  I have been very happy with the leaf structure on this plant and it definitely feels smaller in the leaf than a pure Whitelockii.   The caudex is huge at this point, probably 1.5 times the size of a basketball.  Honestly, I'm just happy that it is finally pushing new leaves for the first time in a few years.  

Male cones on my known male from last year (3 and pushed a 4th out after the photo was taken), and the one coning now that I'm not so sure about.  I was comparing it to my E laurentianus female cones which still has me a little uncertain.  These can handle a lot of sun, as you can see mine is next to a south facing wall where it gets a lot of reflected sun and heat.

[Scott W]

Female Multifrondis crossed with pollen from a triple hybrid created by @edbrown_III , (Revoluta x Taitungensis) x Diannanensis.  Her last frond has died and now she's just a big mound of seeds...

 

 

First leaf from the reverse cross performed in 2020, pollinating a @edbrown_III female (Revoluta x Taitungensis) x diannanensis with Multifrondis.  Leaf is HUGE but no signs of multi yet.  Hope that changes with later flushes.