Natural history

Sporophyte phase

As in other gymnosperms, the large woody plant is the sporophyte phase of the life cycle and typically is diploid in chromosome number. All cycads may be called “functional conifers,” for all species bear strobili; these strobili are of a simple type, unlike those of true conifers, which bear more complex, compound strobili. It is not considered that this feature of cycads indicates anything other than a parallelism in evolution.

Cycad males and females are morphologically alike except for their sporophylls. Male sporophylls (microsporophylls) are spatulate organs bearing large pollen sacs (microsporangia) in clusters (sori) on their lower (abaxial) surfaces. Up to 200 cubic cm (12 cubic inches) of pollen are produced by a single cone of Cycas rumphii, and some other species produce similar volumes. It was once estimated that one pollen cone of Encephalartos produced seven billion pollen grains having a total volume of about 300 cubic cm (18 cubic inches). While this enormous production would seem to be consistent with a system of wind dispersal, observations and controlled experiments strongly suggest that in most, or perhaps all, cycads, insect pollen vectors are necessary for effective pollination of ovules. The Mexican cycad, or cardboard palm (Zamia furfuracea), for example, is pollinated by a small snout weevil, Rhopalotria mollis, which lays its eggs and completes its reproductive cycle in male cones. Emerging adults then carry pollen to female cones and pollination of ovules and subsequent fertilization of eggs occurs.

Gametophyte phase

As in all other gymnosperms, microsporangiate and megasporangiate sporophytes of cycads produce, respectively, male and female gametophytes. The male gametophyte phase of the life cycle begins in the microsporangium with meiotic production of tetrads of microspores followed by the division of each haploid microspore into a three-celled pollen grain. Because it is multicellular, the pollen grain is considered to be an immature male gametophyte, but its further development into a sexually mature organism occurs only after it has been shed from the microsporangium and transported as a pollen grain to a megasporophyll—specifically, to an ovule, within which the male gametophyte grows to maturity.

Concurrently with pollen development, the ovule differentiates, and at the time of pollination it consists of a large megasporangium (nucellus) enclosed within a fleshy integument. At this time an opening at its distal end (the micropyle) permits pollen to enter the ovule. Over the next three to five months, the male gametophyte develops into a haustorial pollen tube, which eventually penetrates the nucellus and partially projects into an archegonial chamber.

Meanwhile in the nucellus, a single megaspore mother cell undergoes meiosis, forming a tetrad of haploid megaspores, only one of which survives to divide mitotically many times and form a large fleshy female gametophyte. The female gametophyte grows at the expense of nucellar tissue but remains enclosed within its remains. At its micropylar end, this gametophyte develops from one to many archegonia (commonly one to six in most cycads and up to 100 in Microcycas, only five or six of which are functional). Each archegonium is composed of a quartet of neck cells beneath which is a large egg. This egg is the largest known in the plant kingdom, being about three millimetres in length.

The development of male and female gametophytes is synchronized, and during the final week or so before fertilization the male gametophyte forms large multiflagellated spermatozoids. In all species but Microcycas there is just one pair of sperm per pollen tube; in Microcycas the spermatozoids number about 12 to 16 per tube. What actually triggers sperm release into the archegonial chamber is unknown, but, when it happens, the spermatozoids quickly move through the archegonial neck into the egg cytoplasm. One sperm loses its flagellature, and fusion of egg and sperm nuclei takes place. Subsequently, the zygote forms a single large embryo, other eggs meanwhile aborting. In the Florida cycad, or coontie (Zamia integrifolia), the reproductive cycle occurs over a period of about 14 months, cones first becoming visible in October, pollination occurring in December, fertilization taking place in late May and early June, and embryogenesis and seed maturity being completed the following December. Similarly slow reproduction is typical also for other genera and species.

As far as is known, cycad seeds have no dormant period or after-ripening requirements and in some cases actually begin germinating while still attached to sporophylls. Possibly some germination inhibitors are present in the outer fleshy layer of the seed, because its removal often accelerates germination, and treatment with scarifying agents also may enhance germinability. The germinating embryo remains attached to the female gametophyte for as long as two years, absorbing nutrition through its cotyledons, which remain embedded in the female gametophyte. The seedling rapidly develops a fleshy taproot and root growth.

The outer layer of the seeds of Cycas circinalis and C. rumphii are thick and somewhat fibrous, and experiments which show them to be capable of long immersion in brine suggest that long-distance dispersal by ocean currents may account for the presence of these species on remote Pacific islands. Little is known of natural seed dispersal of other cycads, but their bright red seed coats suggest a visual signal to animals. Mockingbirds, squirrels, and coatis are reported to disperse them. In general, however, cycad seeds, which are rather heavy, are poorly dispersed, and most germinate at the base of the parent, where they often languish and die.

Stem

Stems of cycads are characteristically short and stout. While most genera have some species with subterranean tuberlike stems, a majority of species are arborescent. The taller cycads include Microcycas calocoma (up to 10 metres [about 33 feet] high), Macrozamia moorei (up to 18 metres [59 feet]), Dioon spinulosum (up to 16 metres [52 feet]), Lepidozamia hopei (up to 18 metres [59 feet]), and Encephalartos altensteinii (up to 20 metres [66 feet]), but most of the arborescent (treelike) species have trunks only 2 to 3 metres (7 to 10 feet) high. The stems of most arborescent species are covered with an armour composed of the hardened leaf and cataphyll bases, but internally they are rather soft and fleshy, with a thick parenchymatous cortex, a large pith, and scanty woody tissue. In most cycads the woody tissue is on the order of 5 to 10 mm (0.2 to 0.4 inch) wide, but Dioon spinulosum has an exceptional amount of wood, in some specimens up to 10 cm (4 inches) wide. This may constitute evidence of the primitive nature of the genus, because seed ferns also generally had stems with considerably more wood than those of most living cycads. Even in Dioon there is no evidence of annual growth rings, so age estimates must rely on other evidence, most often on counts of the whorls of leaf scars, which can be related to annual or biennial production of new leaf flushes. On this basis, it has been estimated that some cycads (notably Dioon and Macrozamia) may be as much as 1,000 years old; however, it is doubtful that most cycads are that old.

Species of Macrozamia, Encephalartos, and Cycas often develop additional cylinders of vascular tissue, apparently formed from vascular cambia originating in the cortex. The result is a condition in which concentric rings of xylem and phloem are present, often two or three but in exceptional cases as many as 14. The xylem of cycad seedlings and that of some subterranean stems (Stangeria, Zamia) is composed of scalariform tracheids; in older stems the tracheids exhibit primitive multiseriate bordered pits.

Another feature of those cycad stems in which terminal cones are produced is the presence of “cone domes” in the pith. In longitudinal sections the pith appears partitioned horizontally at intervals by vascular tissue. Each cone dome represents the displacement of a cone axis to one side as a result of the initiation and growth of the new vegetative apex.

The cycad stem grows from the tip (apically); the only lateral buds and branches are those unusually placed (adventitious) stems, whose buds arise by regeneration after the apical growth tissue (meristem) has been destroyed or as a result of wounding. Apical dominance and lack of branching bring about an apparent single-stemmed (monopodial) growth form, so that older plants become quite palmlike. This appearance, however, is deceptive, because in more than half the genera the apical meristem is converted from a vegetative to a reproductive function in that it is transformed into a strobilus (cone). A new vegetative meristem arises to one side of the cone meristem; subsequent growth and enlargement further displace the cone or cones to the side, so that the monopodial appearance is maintained even though the type of growth is actually sympodial. Only members of three genera (Macrozamia, Lepidozamia, and Encephalartos) have cones initiated to the side and are truly monopodial; the remaining eight are considered sympodial.

Cycads have such thick stems that rearrangements of internal vascular connectives are not externally apparent. The cycad trunk is about as thick at its crown as at its base, thus furthering the resemblance to palms. Such stems, termed pachycaulous, result as in palms from activity of a primary thickening meristem (PTM) lateral to the apical meristem, which produces much greater increments of cortical parenchyma than would result if only an apical meristem were present. This is an important difference between cycadophytes and coniferophytes, for in the latter there is no PTM and the stem at its apical end is relatively smaller than at its base.

A further characteristic of cycad stems not occurring in cycadeoids, seed ferns, or coniferophytes is the presence of girdling leaf traces. In cycad stems, the vascular strands follow a circuitous route to the leaf bases, which is clearly seen in cross sections of stems. Girdling leaf traces are an important means of distinguishing between cycad and cycadeoid fossils.