Cycad IDs

[Kailua_Krish]

Hi all,

So I just started volunteering at the USF Botanical Gardens (Tampa) and they have many unlabeled cycads. They asked if I would help ID them and I'm a bit over my head! So if you could help me with the IDs for these it would be much appreciated!

-Krishna

Here is the full collection of plants that need to be identified:

http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk301/krishnaraoji88/USF%20Botanical%20Garden/

Edited September 28, 2010 by krishnaraoji88

[Kailua_Krish]

Plant #1

[Kailua_Krish]

Plant #2

[Kailua_Krish]

Plant #3

[Kailua_Krish]

Plant #4

[Kailua_Krish]

Plant #5

[Kailua_Krish]

Plant #6

[Kailua_Krish]

Plants 7 & 8

[Kailua_Krish]

Plant #9

[Kailua_Krish]

Plant 10

[Kailua_Krish]

Plant 11

[tinman10101]

I am sure Jody will be able to assist.

[Madchemis]

this one is encephalartos ferox.

Plant #2

[Madchemis]

Looks like a E. Gratus.

Plant #1

[freakypalmguy]

Here's my guesses

1-E. gratus

2-E. ferox

3-D. spinulosum or mejia

4-D. mejia

5-D. spinulosum

6-D. spinulosum

7-Z. furfuracea

8-C. angulata

9-C. circinalis

10-C. taitungensis

11-Ceratozamia mexicana or rubusta

[virtualpalm]

Pretty good guesses, Matt. Here are mine:

1. Encephalartos gratus

2. Encephalartos ferox

3. Dioon mejiae

4. Dioon mejiae

5. Dioon mejiae

6. Dioon spinulosum

7. Zamia erosa (= Z. amblyphyllidia)

8. Australian Cycas sp. (could be C. angulata)

9. Cycas rumphii complex (not C. circinalis)

10. Cycas taitungensis

11. Ceratozamia robusta

Jody

[cycadjungle]

Only the first few pictures came up for me, but I'm pretty familiar with most of the plants there. If you are REALLY interested in working with these, you may want to meet up at the garden on the weekend when they have the sale next month. The CFPACS is always there and if someone in a booth doesn't help you, I may come over and we can go through all those together if you want. Have you seen the female Stangeria near the shade house? The zamias and ceratozamias under the trees behind and to the south of the buildings? It would be great to finally get someone that would pollinate those plants!

[Moose]

Only the first few pictures came up for me, but I'm pretty familiar with most of the plants there. If you are REALLY interested in working with these, you may want to meet up at the garden on the weekend when they have the sale next month. The CFPACS is always there and if someone in a booth doesn't help you, I may come over and we can go through all those together if you want. Have you seen the female Stangeria near the shade house? The zamias and ceratozamias under the trees behind and to the south of the buildings? It would be great to finally get someone that would pollinate those plants!

Cycad sex for the pollinator could be painful, but it needs to be done.

[Kailua_Krish]

Only the first few pictures came up for me, but I'm pretty familiar with most of the plants there. If you are REALLY interested in working with these, you may want to meet up at the garden on the weekend when they have the sale next month. The CFPACS is always there and if someone in a booth doesn't help you, I may come over and we can go through all those together if you want. Have you seen the female Stangeria near the shade house? The zamias and ceratozamias under the trees behind and to the south of the buildings? It would be great to finally get someone that would pollinate those plants!

I would love to meet up but unfortunately I will be out of town from Thursday until Sunday night that weekend I will only be in Tampa for a year so I'm just trying to help them with some basic things and since they dont really even know what they have it came down to IDing and listing being the most useful things I could do.

Thanks for the guesses all! How do you distinguish between D. mejiae and spinulosum?

-Krishna

[virtualpalm]

How do you distinguish between D. mejiae and spinulosum?

The first step, of course, would be to order a "Key to the Species of Dioon" poster from the Cycad Society website: http://www.cycad.org/publications/Dioon-poster.htm.

If, however, you are interested in a more immediate answer, below is the part from the poster used to key out the three species of "tree" dioons in the D. spinulosum group using vegetative characters:

1A. Median leaflets of adult leaves elliptic-acuminate, pungent; eophylls resembling adult leaves, with

proximal leaflets reducing to pinnacanths and with petioles short (< 20% of leaf length) or absent;

emerging leaves densely, persistently tomentose ....... D. mejiae

1B. Median leaflets of adult leaves lanceolate, not pungent; eophylls with proximal leaflets nearly equal in

size to median and distal leaflets and with long, unarmed petioles (≥ 50% of leaf length); emerging

leaves glabrous to pubescent

2A. Adult leaves to 2 m long, usually lacking petioles; proximal leaflets lanceolate, reducing to

pinnacanths; median leaflets symmetrically lanceolate, to 21 cm long and 20 mm wide; distal

and median leaflet margins usually serrated; leaflet attachments only slightly decurrent;

emerging leaves glabrous ....... D. spinulosum

2B. Adult leaves to 1.4 m long with unarmed petioles 10-15 cm long; proximal leaflets linear-lanceolate

to linear, reducing, not to pinnacanths; median leaflets asymmetrically lanceolate, to

19 cm long and 25 mm wide; distal and median leaflet margins usually entire; leaflet

attachments strongly decurrent; emerging leaves pubescent ....... D. rzedowskii

Jody

Edited October 1, 2010 by virtualpalm