Cycadaceae Pers.

Cycadaceae, John Lewis. Flora Zambesiaca 1:1. 1960

Habit

Dioecious trees or shrubs

Stem

Trunk simple or sparsely branched, covered with spirally arranged leaf-bases and scale-leaves, either up to 15 m. tall or very short and almost subterranean

Leaves

Leaves usually long and pinnate, in close spirals, forming an often wide-spreading crown on the trunk and (except in one species of Macrozamia) intercalated with leathery scale-leaves

Male

Staminate strobilus forming a terminal cone of leathery scales with numerous pollen-sacs on their abaxial surface

Cones

Female strobilus either a loose apical whorl of fronds bearing erect ovules marginally (Cycas) or a terminal cone of thick and often woody scales bearing a pair of inverted ovules adaxially Staminate strobilus forming a terminal cone of leathery scales with numerous pollen-sacs on their abaxial surface

Female

Female strobilus either a loose apical whorl of fronds bearing erect ovules marginally (Cycas) or a terminal cone of thick and often woody scales bearing a pair of inverted ovules adaxially

Cycadaceae, Hutchinson and Dalziel. Flora of West Tropical Africa 1:1. 1954

Habit

Shrubs or small trees with thick, usually simple stems and a crown of pinnatisect leaves circinate in bud; leaflets often with spiny teeth

Cones

Cones dioecious Males terminal or subterminal, composed of numerous leathery or fleshy flat or peltate scales bearing on the under-surface numerous pollen-sacs Female cones similar, the scales bearing a pair of inverted nude ovules on the lower side

Male

Males terminal or subterminal, composed of numerous leathery or fleshy flat or peltate scales bearing on the under-surface numerous pollen-sacs

Female

Female cones similar, the scales bearing a pair of inverted nude ovules on the lower side

Seeds

Seeds large, drupe-like, with copious endosperm; cotyledons 2