Is this normal for a Sago?

[Steve Mac]

I don't think it looked like this last time it flowered.

[pinktree1]

It could develop to a 

crested sago palm – Google Suche

[Merlyn]

@Steve Macin my limited experience with male cones...I'd say...er...GADZOOKS!  Maybe ZOINKS!  At the moment my two males are putting out solo cones, with the possibility of them growing a "side trunk" about halfway up.  But yours does look like a crested or semi-crested form, which occurs at apparently 0.1% or less of the population.  More details and photos here:

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/cycads/Cycas/revoluta-odd.html

[Tracy]

10 hours ago, Steve Mac said:

I don't think it looked like this last time it flowered.

Steve can you clarify, did it only push one cone out the last time it coned or was it still multiple, but just not as many as this time?  Photo if you have one of the previous coning events would be helpful.  You probably know that Cycads don't flower, they push out cones and in the case of Cycas either male cones or an open formation for females referred to as megasporophyll.  You have a boy by the way.

[Steve Mac]

Thanks guys, I had not heard of a Crested Sago. I could not find a previous photo of a cone but I have been reliably informed that the previous cone was a single cone. One thing that we did different was to give it handfuls of fertilizer and manganese and everything, to counter the dreaded dieback after flushing that was the constant pattern. And it worked a treat, it may have also stimulated the cresting effect.

After Fert and tons of Manganese and micronutrients. Then came the crest.

It looked like this before Fert and manganese.

[Steve Mac]

 @TracyI found a previous photo after all. It was single.

So cresting may be environmental? 

 

[Tracy]

11 hours ago, Steve Mac said:

Thanks guys, I had not heard of a Crested Sago. I could not find a previous photo of a cone but I have been reliably informed that the previous cone was a single cone. One thing that we did different was to give it handfuls of fertilizer and manganese and everything, to counter the dreaded dieback after flushing that was the constant pattern. And it worked a treat, it may have also stimulated the cresting effect.

After Fert and tons of Manganese and micronutrients. Then came the crest.

It looked like this before Fert and manganese.

Steve that flush just looks like a happy revoluta flush as opposed to an indication it would subsequently push that cluster of cones.  It appears there was a nutrient deficit of some sort based on the improved appearance after you fertilized.  I haven't read about the crested Sagos but have seen an Encephalartos that posted multiple male cones which later formed new additional flushing points where each cone had emerged from the caudex.   So I don't know whether environmental stresses or a genetic predisposition with the right environmental shock could trigger fasciation.  I wouldn't be surprised if you have a fasciated flush push from under those cones, actually I would expect it.

[Merlyn]

In several Revoluta at Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin, TX I noted dead primary growing points and subsequent new grow points around the perimeter of the top.  This was definitely caused by the brutal cold SnowPocalypse.  In your case I'd guess a genetic predisposition to it, assuming there wasn't anything weird like a monster freeze or something falling on it.  I say this because there's a guy near me with some gigantic 8' trunk branching Revoluta.  I asked him about it one day, and he showed me several other 2-4' trunk Revoluta.  He said they were all pups taken from the big branching ones...and indeed they had all started branching too.  There weren't any that were just starting to split, so I'm not sure what that looks like.

There's also a 5 headed one just down the street from me.  It used to have a really bad Manganese deficiency, similar (but much worse) than the frizzle top on yours.  At some point over the past 5 years it went from a single head to 5 growing points.  I'm not sure if it's male or female.

[ahosey01]

I have a crested Cycas revoluta with seven growing points arranged in a line.  I can share photos a little later today.  I don't know what it looked like before it was crested, so can't confirm it coned like this - but I can at least confirm that they exist.