Cycad cones and flushes

[Tracy]

Ceratozamia robusta popping out a couple of leaf flush because it is so focused on pushing out another male cone.  Some pretty substantial length to the leaves as you can see it pushing up over the height of the block wall.  Great color on the flushes of this species of Ceratozamia.

[Jubaea_James760]

My smaller Dioon Edule var. Queretaro flushing

Cycas Taitungensis finally flushing this year.

[DG2020]

Looks like the squirrels picked a good spot for this. 

[Scott W]

Pollinated this Cycas thourasii with Multifrondis pollen for the second time yesterday.  Now we wait....

[Tracy]

12 hours ago, Scott W said:

Pollinated this Cycas thourasii with Multifrondis pollen for the second time yesterday.  Now we wait....

I haven't had any success with viable seed on my Cycas thouarsii I have pollinated in the past.  I'm waiting on another batch of seeds from pollinating last year that are still hanging on.  I haven't harvested the seeds from my Cycas thouarsii x cupida, which was pollinated from the same last year, and its close to pollination time right now. 

Now the question.  How long have your seed hung on that have been viable on your C thouarsii, whether pollinated with thoursii or something else?  You can see the seeds hanging on the megasporophylls on the C thouarsii x cupida which are quite a bit smaller than any on my C thouarsii.  I suspect they are too small to have been viably pollinated, but just don't really know what to expect from this cross.

[Scott W]

59 minutes ago, Tracy said:

Now the question.  How long have your seed hung on that have been viable on your C thouarsii, whether pollinated with thoursii or something else?  You can see the seeds hanging on the megasporophylls on the C thouarsii x cupida which are quite a bit smaller than any on my C thouarsii.  I suspect they are too small to have been viably pollinated, but just don't really know what to expect from this cross.

 

This is the first time she's coned and with no male Thourasii pollen available I put some stored Multifrondis on it.  Only time will tell....I really don't know what to expect either.

[Tracy]

On 8/9/2021 at 9:39 PM, Tracy said:

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.

Encephalartos sclavoi color changes as it progresses through the flush.

[Tracy]

On 7/17/2021 at 5:43 PM, Tracy said:

I concur wholeheartedly.  I am inclined to say that this first cone on an Encephalartos cerinus will turn out to be male, but I have prejudged and been wrong too many times.  I looked at both the male and female cone photos in Loran's book, The Cycads, which I also refer to as The Bible, and could see things that lead me to believe it can still fatten up (female) or it might just go vertical (male).

My instincts were absolutely correct on this one, it is male.  Its interesting to see how it stretched out and is now opening up to soon give pollen.  I like the yellow color of the cone too.

[DippyD]

E. dyerianus with a nice new flush. 

[DippyD]

E. Caffer 

[Tracy]

E laurentianus cones just starting to follow apart with the next generation of cones still pushing and a couple of months away from being receptive.

[DippyD]

26 minutes ago, Tracy said:

E laurentianus cones just starting to follow apart with the next generation of cones still pushing and a couple of months away from being receptive.

did you juice the old ones?

[Tracy]

14 hours ago, DippyD said:

did you juice the old ones?

Unfortunately I didn't have any E laurentianus pollen, but I did have a sclavoi that had one last cone and a natalensis x horridus male.  I made visual notes (photos) of which cone received the sclavoi and will keep the seeds separated as they come off and I start doing the sinker testing.  My preference would have been to only use the sclavoi pollen, but I ran out after the first cone.  I should have collected more from the sclavoi earlier, because it had more than one cone on it.  We will see if there is any potential as the process unfolds.  The sclavoi pollen came from the plant in the post above from 8/25 with the bronze flush.

[DippyD]

On 9/1/2021 at 6:14 AM, Tracy said:

Unfortunately I didn't have any E laurentianus pollen, but I did have a sclavoi that had one last cone and a natalensis x horridus male.  I made visual notes (photos) of which cone received the sclavoi and will keep the seeds separated as they come off and I start doing the sinker testing.  My preference would have been to only use the sclavoi pollen, but I ran out after the first cone.  I should have collected more from the sclavoi earlier, because it had more than one cone on it.  We will see if there is any potential as the process unfolds.  The sclavoi pollen came from the plant in the post above from 8/25 with the bronze flush.

That should be interesting if it took!

[Sr. Califas]

 

July 27th - August 21st

Edited September 8, 2021 by Sr. Califas

[GeneAZ]

Laevifoilus flush plus a pup!  Merry Christmas!

What form is that?

[Sr. Califas]

1 hour ago, GeneAZ said:

Laevifoilus flush plus a pup!  Merry Christmas!

What form is that?

I believe it is just the regular one with greener leaves. I do have a smaller one that is the Kaapsehoop form and that one distinctly shows blue in the leaflets. 

[Scott W]

Tag on this when I got it from the late Robert Chumley said Dioon holmgrenii.  First flush in four years since I put it in the ground...

 

Cycas revoluta holding a ton of seed... pollinated with Multifrondis

 

Second leaf from last years cross of Revoluta x multifrondis showing signs of success...hoping to see more double leaflets on subsequent fronds.

[Coasta]

Cycas Cairnsiana new flush at night 

 

[GeneAZ]

This is an Encephalartos trispinosus hirsute form with fishtail  ends to  about half of each flush.

 

[Coasta]

@GeneAZ very cool. I have the kudu form 

 

 

[GeneAZ]

15 hours ago, Coasta said:

@GeneAZ very cool. I have the kudu form 

 

 

That will get so blue in AZ as it matures.  Great form.

[Coasta]

@GeneAZ thanks! It's flushing it's third leaf right now.

[DippyD]

[Manalto]

I hope it's okay to ask a cultural question here. My C. debaoensis  started to flush about a month ago and then it shrivelled. No significant shift in weather. Any ideas? Is this common?

I ask because it would have doubled the size of the plant and I would like to prevent this from occurring in the future, if possible.

 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Manalto

[GeneAZ]

Looks like it got hot and he changed his mind.

[Manalto]

12 hours ago, GeneAZ said:

Looks like it got hot and he changed his mind.

It was pretty hot but I thought the regular rainfall would compensate for that. Apparently not. I'm assuming this is not a rare occurrence.

[Tracy]

On 9/10/2021 at 8:49 PM, DippyD said:

Based on the collar it is showing, yellow with orange base, I would assume this is an Encephalartos lehmannii and a male cone if so.

[GeneAZ]

9 hours ago, Manalto said:

It was pretty hot but I thought the regular rainfall would compensate for that. Apparently not. I'm assuming this is not a rare occurrence.

Not rare especially among the more vigorous Cycas, but any cycad will do this "abort" thing and just regrow meristem and launch again in a few months when it cools off.  If it happens on E. latifrons, it can skip a couple years before the next attempt.

[freakypalmguy]

Thoursaii male

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, freakypalmguy said:

Thoursaii male

I can smell him from here... nope, must be one in my garden.   My wife is always bugging me to remove the male cones as she is not a fan of their musky odor.  I'm somewhat indifferent to it, even though it is pretty darn strong.  I see yours is right next to the house so you must get a whiff when the windows are open in the mornings and/or evenings?

[Merlyn]

Here's my first ever Dioon Edule cone, this one is on a big cluster with one central head about 1.5' tall and 7 or 8 offsets.  I am guessing it's male, since it appears to be falling apart at the top without the appearance of seeds.  

[freakypalmguy]

On 9/13/2021 at 12:26 AM, Tracy said:

I can smell him from here... nope, must be one in my garden.   My wife is always bugging me to remove the male cones as she is not a fan of their musky odor.  I'm somewhat indifferent to it, even though it is pretty darn strong.  I see yours is right next to the house so you must get a whiff when the windows are open in the mornings and/or evenings?

 That’s our master bath window so it doesn’t get into the rest of the house. Thankfully my wife doesn’t mind. I’ve got multiple Dioon males going right now also mixing up the musky smell. I’ve actually grown to like the smell of them.

[Manalto]

On 9/12/2021 at 6:14 PM, GeneAZ said:

Not rare especially among the more vigorous Cycas, but any cycad will do this "abort" thing and just regrow meristem and launch again in a few months when it cools off.  

From your keyboard to God's ears.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Manalto
Slightly better photo

[Merlyn]

Last summer my tentatively ID'd Cycas Diannanensis x (Revoluta x Taitungensis) finally flushed.  I had bought it from Green's Nursery, where it had been languishing in a dark corner of a greenhouse for probably 20 years.  I posted photos on the FB "Cycads" group, and @edbrown_III said he was pretty sure it was one of his hybrids that he'd created in the late 90s.  I have since moved it to the backyard where I can see it on a daily basis.  The photos below are every single day for 1 month, I think I only missed one day towards the beginning.  My wife put together the timelapse and put it up on her cardmaking/crafting channel:

 

[Manalto]

How gratifying!

[Tracy]

On 9/13/2021 at 8:39 AM, Merlyn said:

Dioon Edule cone, this one is on a big cluster with one central head about 1.5' tall and 7 or 8 offsets.  I am guessing it's male, since it appears to be falling apart at the top without the appearance of seeds.  

You are correct in your assessment of it being male.  Even before you noticed it falling apart with no seeds, the elongation of the cone was the first sign it was male.  The elongation of the emerging cone was probably followed by the cone opening up and exposing the pollen, prior to the stage you are at now, with it falling apart.  Did you ever see the pollen shedding from the cone?  Here with little rain, one can often see it on the caudex below or leaflets on the lower leaves below the cone.

[Merlyn]

15 hours ago, Tracy said:

You are correct in your assessment of it being male.  Even before you noticed it falling apart with no seeds, the elongation of the cone was the first sign it was male.  The elongation of the emerging cone was probably followed by the cone opening up and exposing the pollen, prior to the stage you are at now, with it falling apart.  Did you ever see the pollen shedding from the cone?  Here with little rain, one can often see it on the caudex below or leaflets on the lower leaves below the cone.

When it first emerged it was still kind of ovoid with a pointy taper, so I wasn't sure.  Then I got busy planting out a section in the backyard and forgot about it.  We've had so much daily rain here that I probably wouldn't have seen the pollen drop anyway, but I'll have to check in ~10 years when it tries again! 

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

We've had so much daily rain here that I probably wouldn't have seen the pollen drop anyway, but I'll have to check in ~10 years when it tries again! 

Once they start coning, expect it to happen more frequently.  There are some exceptions but at least in my experience with the forms I have, Dioon edule will cone almost yearly after it starts.

[Tracy]

On 8/13/2021 at 3:58 PM, Firepalm said:

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

 

Only one of my two of this E. whitelockii x sclavoi hybrids is coning right now.  Last year was the first time for the male and this year I found out that my other one is female.