Australian Cycads

Plant Description

The main two genera in Australia are Cycas and Macrozamia. Both have separate male and female plants. Macrozamia produce pineapple like fruit from the base, whereas Cycas produce fruit from the top of the plant. The plants are very slow growing, taking many years to reach a metre trunk height. Cycas species have a vein down the middles of the leaflets, whereas Macrozamia species do not.

Australia has some interesting and beautiful forms of these plants, but they are rare in cultivation. Small specialist nurserymen have been frustrated over government red tape in procuring plants from farms when they were dug out. Farmers often remove the plants because they are toxic to livestock. For this reason, as well as the slow germination (often about one year), and slow growth of the plants, few are seen in nurseries, and those that are, are often expensive. The exotic Cycas revoluta is often seen in Australian gardens.

Usage

These plants are toxic - leaves and fruits. Aborigines ate the seeds after much preparation. They were roasted, then cut, and then washed for several days to leech out the toxins. Bush Tucker Man - Les Hiddens reports that this preparation did not remove all the toxins, and so these seeds should not be eaten at all. Certainly those who have eaten them without the special preaparation have bcome very ill, or died.

Macrozamia lucida leaves and fruit - female plant.

Macrozamia - with fruit.