Cycas platyphylla

Cycas platyphylla is a cycad in the genus Cycas, native to Queensland, Australia.

Cycas platyphylla
Conservation status
Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Gymnospermae
Division:	Cycadophyta
Class:	Cycadopsida
Order:	Cycadales
Family:	Cycadaceae
Genus:	Cycas
Species:	C. platyphylla
Binomial name
Cycas platyphylla K.D.Hill

The stems are erect or decumbent, growing to 1.5 m tall but most often less than a metre. The leaves are pinnate, keeled, 60–100 cm long. New fronds are glaucous blue at first, becoming dark yellow-green, moderately glossy above. Megasporophylls are thickly covered in orange indumentum and the developing seeds have an intensely glaucous sarcotesta.

Habitat

This cycad has a main distribution in sparse Eucalyptus savanna on skeletal soils over outcrops of rhyolite or basalt west of the Atherton Tableland in north-east Queensland. This species is fire tolerant. It grows abundantly in cool habitat

Gallery

• 
  Wild plant in open savanna in north Queensland
• 
  With fire-blackened, branched caudex
• 
  Megasporophylls on a wild plant
• 
  Colony on an outcrop of rhyolite in open dry-tropical savanna in northern Queensland

References

• Cycad Pages: Cycas platyphylla Archived 2013-05-10 at the Wayback Machine
• The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Cycas platyphylla