Cycads / ˈsaɪkædz / —constituting the division Cycadophyta —are seed plants with a stout, woody cylindrical trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and usually pinnate (feather-shaped) …

Cycad, any of the palmlike woody gymnospermous plants that constitute the order Cycadales. The order consists of three extant families, which contain about 10 genera and about 310 species. Some …

Cycads are an ancient group of vascular plants that were once a prominent component of the world’s flora. The oldest cycad fossils date to the early Permian (280 million years ago) or late Carboniferous …

In fact, the Mesozoic era (65 to 230 million years ago) is often called the Age of Cycads and Dinosaurs, in honor of two of the most prominent lifeforms at the time. There was a strong relationship between …

Jan 23, 2026 · Often mistaken for palms or tree ferns, cycads are gymnosperms, meaning their seeds are not enclosed within an ovary. They represent one of the oldest lineages of living seed plants, with …

Cycadophyta presently consists of the living order Cycadales, which is comprised of three families worldwide. In the Mesozoic, cycads were represented by the Cycadales, plus another large order, …

Somewhere in the complex evolutionary pattern between the ferns and seed plants came the cycads, which are tropical and relatives of other cone-bearing (conifer) plants.

Today only a handful of cycads still exist, and many are facing possible extinction in the wild (such as Microcycas in western Cuba). However, because of their large attractive leaves, many cycads have …

According to the IUCN – World Conservation Union’s Cycad Specialist Group, cycads represent one of the most threatened plant groups in the world. More than half of the currently accepted 377 species …

Cycads are one of the more ancient gymnosperm lineages, appearing in the fossil record around 300 million years ago. Currently, many extant species are in danger of extinction in the wild. However, …