Cycad cones and flushes

[Brian]

Cone and flush on a Cycas multifrondis clump

 

[Brian]

Dioon tomasellii flushing true to its name.

 

[Tracy]

Making progress on a flush, twisted and blue but still soft.

[Gallop]

C multifrondis x ( C tropophylla x C mitcholitzii) 

C bifida x C multifrondis

 

[Gallop]

 

 

[Tracy]

Some Cycas activity

[Tracy]

Ceratozamia mexicana flush and cone still in progress.

[Merlyn]

My largest Cycas Multipinnata decided to cone this spring, it looks female to me!  I doubt it has set viable seed, but there was a male Guizhouensis coning just across the pathway.  So I suppose it might make seeds?

 

[Tracy]

4 hours ago, Merlyn said:

My largest Cycas Multipinnata decided to cone this spring, it looks female to me!  I doubt it has set viable seed, but there was a male Guizhouensis coning just across the pathway.  So I suppose it might make seeds?

 

Give it some help.  Artificial insemination Doctor. 

[Brian]

On 5/26/2024 at 10:22 PM, Tracy said:

Ceratozamia mexicana flush and cone still in progress.

C. Mexicana is one of the most beautiful cycads when flushing for sure. I got a few but they are slow as molasses. How often do yours flush?

[Brian]

Flush progressing on what I believe is Encephalartos princeps.

 

[Brian]

Zamia paucijuga with cones and flushing

 

[Brian]

Zamia stevensonii 
 

[Merlyn]

@Brian I haven't seen a bright yellow flush like that on any cycad...u til now!  Could it be a Longifolius?  I saw some photos of Longifolius flushing bronze.  I have struggled just to keep them alive here, both Princeps and Longifolius seem very susceptible to root and crown rot over the winter.

[Brian]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

@Brian I haven't seen a bright yellow flush like that on any cycad...u til now!  Could it be a Longifolius?  I saw some photos of Longifolius flushing bronze.  I have struggled just to keep them alive here, both Princeps and Longifolius seem very susceptible to root and crown rot over the winter.

@Merlyn I have a few E. Longifolius here and some do flush yellow. It’s also one of the more difficult Encephalartos for me keep keep alive in this climate. What I posted could very well be E. Longifolius but the leaf base led me to think E. princess or even lehmannii.  Just for comparison I’ll post a few photos. The first photo is the leaf base of the Encephalartos I posted. The second is of one of my longilolius and the third is lehmannii. 

[Gallop]

[Billeb]

13 hours ago, Brian said:

Flush progressing on what I believe is Encephalartos princeps.

 

 

10 hours ago, Merlyn said:

@Brian I haven't seen a bright yellow flush like that on any cycad...u til now!  Could it be a Longifolius?  

It’s very easy to tell Princeps from Lehmanii or Longifolius. Take a frond in your hand from the bottom and squeeze it together closing the leaflets, if the leaflets aim towards the center of the caudex (1st picture) and form what’s called the Venetian Blind effect, it’s Princeps. If the leaflets lay flat and aim toward each other (2nd picture) it’s Longifolius or Lehmanii. 

it’s a little hard to tell from the picture but it looks more like Longifolius than Princeps to me. 
 

Do the test. 

-dale 

 

 

 

 

[Tracy]

11 hours ago, Brian said:

@Merlyn I have a few E. Longifolius here and some do flush yellow. It’s also one of the more difficult Encephalartos for me keep keep alive in this climate. What I posted could very well be E. Longifolius but the leaf base led me to think E. princess or even lehmannii.  Just for comparison I’ll post a few photos. The first photo is the leaf base of the Encephalartos I posted. The second is of one of my longilolius and the third is lehmannii. 

Encephalartos princeps have yellow leaf base collars, whereas Encephalartos lehmannii have orange collars. This appears to be Encephalartos princeps caudex.

[Tracy]

11 hours ago, Billeb said:

 

It’s very easy to tell Princeps from Lehmanii or Longifolius. Take a frond in your hand from the bottom and squeeze it together closing the leaflets, if the leaflets aim towards the center of the caudex (1st picture) and form what’s called the Venetian Blind effect, it’s Princeps. If the leaflets lay flat and aim toward each other (2nd picture) it’s Longifolius or Lehmanii. 

it’s a little hard to tell from the picture but it looks more like Longifolius than Princeps to me. 
 

Do the test. 

-dale 

 

 

 

 

Encephalartos longifolius has a leaflet insertion pattern that is angled, but doesn't have the leaf base collars that lehmannii and princeps do.  Lehmannii leaf base collars have an orange ring.

Standard green form of Encephalartos longifolius and a lehmannii show the difference in leaflet insertion and the collars I described. 

[Tracy]

Just now, Tracy said:

Encephalartos longifolius has a leaflet insertion pattern that is angled, but doesn't have the leaf base collars that lehmannii and princeps do.  Lehmannii leaf base collars have an orange ring.

Standard green form of Encephalartos longifolius and a lehmannii show the difference in leaflet insertion and the collars I described. 

Now Encephalartos princeps collars and leaflet insertion pattern.  Big collars again like lehmanii, but the Venetian Blind insertion again which longifolius shares.

[Brian]

One of my E. Longifolius flushes starting to harden off. I germinated it from seed sold to me as longifolius “blue blunt leaf”

 

[GeneAZ]

Looks like typical longifolius to me.

[Brian]

@GeneAZ Thanks for your opinion, I appreciate it. Most of my cycads I germinated from seed so It’s really hard to know what I’ll end up with. 
Here is another one that just finished flushing  from the same seed batch. Even though it’s not blue it does have some interesting leaflets characteristics. 

[Brian]

A few random flashes around the garden.

 

[Gallop]

10 hours ago, Brian said:

A few random flashes around the garden.

 

What Cycas is that in 2nd picture?

[Brian]

5 hours ago, Gallop said:

What Cycas is that in 2nd picture?

C. multifrondis 

[Gallop]

Thanks, that’s wild looking. 

3 hours ago, Brian said:

C. multifrondis 

[Gallop]

[Brian]

Zamia splendens flushing in full sun, female cones on a plant that’s shaded and male cones on another shaded plant.

 

[GeneAZ]

23 hours ago, Brian said:

@GeneAZ Thanks for your opinion, I appreciate it. Most of my cycads I germinated from seed so It’s really hard to know what I’ll end up with. 
Here is another one that just finished flushing  from the same seed batch. Even though it’s not blue it does have some interesting leaflets characteristics. 

Beautiful plant.  Of course, these things do continue to change quite a bit over the decades.  I don't know honestly when the "blunt" feature shows up.

[GeneAZ]

My best E. Latifrons of the Green Hills form.  I've been growing this 38 years from 2-leaf seedling.

 

 

E. Msinga spiny form 30 year old offset.

My first cycad D. Edule purchased 4 inch offset from a florist shop 1973.  Turned out to be female. 2.5 feet of fat trunk now in 56 inch pot!

[Brian]

Some new growth around the garden. Zamia lindenii with newly opened flush.

Lepidozamia hopei flush

Cycas bifida 
Encephalartos macrostrobilus

[Tracy]

The old foliage is always looking pretty rough by the time a new flush opens on this Encephalartos caffer.  It's rather cute with it's fluffy leaflets for a small Encephalartos species.

[Brian]

Dioon spinulosum with off shoots flushing. Seems like the more offshoots I remove the more that grow. I finally stopped removing them. D. spinulosum is one of my favorite Dioon.

 

 

[Brian]

Bees enjoying a Cycas cone with more to come.

 

[Brian]

Cycas maconochiei subsp. lanata flush. 
I’ve struggled with white flies and mite attacks on this and most of my other Cycas. It’s finally starting to look good.

 

[Billeb]

I know it doesn’t look like much but I’m stoked to see this guy pushing new growth. This Encephalartos Middelburgensis started to push a new leaf last year and got about 3” out of the caudex, then shriveled up and died outta nowhere. Confused and concerned, I decided to leave the plant but monitor it more closely hoping it’d pull thru. Looks like that may have been a good decision. Whew….dodging death over here!! 
 

-dale

[Tracy]

Encephalartos nubimontanus pups that I removed and transplanted are flushing for the first time.  The mother plant had pups wrapping all the way around including these two that were growing toward a walkway.  I elected to remove several on the walkway side and transplant into pots or the ground.  This was the first to flush.

On the other side of the wall, I'm doing battle with some little black aphids on another cycad.  They seem to be particularly attracted to some of my bluer plants (trispinosis, lehmannii and horridus).  The one battling them right now is something I acquired as Encephalartos horridus Steytlerville form (possibly a natural cross of horridus and lehmannii).  The pup flush is a bit ahead of the main caudex on this one.

[Brian]

A few small Macrozamia flushes in the shade house.

 

[Brian]

A few more flushes around the garden.