cycadophyte

▪ plant

Introduction

      any member of a diverse collection of mostly extinct primitive gymnospermous plants. They probably had their origins among the progymnosperms of the Devonian Period (416 to 359 million years ago), possibly among a primitive, long-extinct group of non-seed-bearing plants, the Aneurophytaceae, in which disposition of fertile structures and patterns of branching bear some resemblance to those of seed ferns.

      Although some botanists prefer to restrict the term cycadophyte to the members of the division Cycadophyta, three groups of primitive seed plants are discussed here, of which the seed ferns (division Pteridospermophyta) and cycadeoids (division Cycadeoidophyta) are represented only by extinct forms. A third group, the order Cycadales (cycads), is today represented by 11 living genera and some 150 species.

General features

Diversity

Seed ferns (seed fern)

      A number of lines of seed-bearing gymnospermous plants are discernible among fossil plants of the late Paleozoic Era (542 to 251 million years ago) and early to middle Mesozoic Era (251 to 65.5 million years ago). Among them a rather loose assemblage of forms, referred to as seed ferns, or pteridosperms, is well represented. The Carboniferous Period (about 360 to 300 million years ago) especially has been called the “age of ferns” because of the abundance of fossilized fernlike leaves. In time, many of these “ferns” were recognized as seed plants, and it has been determined that seed ferns were a dominant vegetation in the late Paleozoic. Seed ferns generally are characterized as having been slender trees or, in some cases, woody, climbing vines, but generally with large, fernlike fronds.

      Characteristic seed-fern foliage consisted of large compound leaves composed of second- and sometimes third-order branches. The latter bore fernlike leaflets, hence the name seed fern, although they are only remotely related to true ferns. Seed-fern stems generally possessed variable amounts of soft, loose wood and relatively large zones of cortex and pith; in this respect they resembled the stems of cycads and differed considerably from the stems of conifers, which have compact wood and relatively small zones of cortex and pith.

      Reproductive organs of seed ferns were borne upon the foliage; single ovules and seeds were borne in place of pinnae, while male organs often occurred as compound pollen organs composed of partially or wholly united microsporangia. As in other gymnosperms, the ovule consisted of one megasporangium within a single integument. It is believed that, as the reproductive cycle progressed, the megasporangium, also called the nucellus, probably gave rise first to a quartet of megaspores. One of these then produced a large fleshy female gametophyte bearing several archegonia, each with a single egg. Following pollination and fertilization, the ovule developed into a seed with an embryo nested in the fleshy female gametophyte, which served as a food source during germination and seedling growth.

Cycadeoids (Cycadeoidophyta)

      Although a few groups of pteridosperms persisted from the late Paleozoic Era well into the Mesozoic, the common cycadophytes of the latter ages were members of the Cycadeoidophyta (also known as Bennettitophyta). They are well represented in the later Mesozoic Era, well into the Cretaceous Period (about 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago), by members of the genus Cycadeoidea, which had rather squat, barrel-shaped, unbranched trunks and once-pinnate compound leaves. The stems were armoured with the persistent bases of leaves; internally there was a thick pith surrounded by a narrow zone of vascular tissue from which vascular strands extended directly into the leaf bases. The fossilized trunks of these plants display scattered strobili among leaf bases of the characteristic armour. Fossil cycadeoids are widespread but are especially abundant in the Black Hills region of South Dakota.

      Earlier in the Mesozoic Era, cycadeoids of a more slender, branching form, exemplified by Williamsonia, were abundant. As in Cycadeoidea, the fronds were single pinnate compound leaves.

      The feature that set the cycadeoids apart from other cycadophytes was the compound strobili, which some, but not all, possessed. These strobili were composed of both male and female sporophylls, in some cases subtended by a system of bracts. Although often described as flowerlike and indeed sometimes depicted as having a floral, rosette form, cycadeoid “flowers,” unlike true flowers (found in the angiosperms), were composed of sporophylls bearing “naked” (i.e., gymnospermous) ovules. They are not now considered to have given rise to any group of the true angiospermous flowering plants.

      Although cycadeoids flourished for millions of years, and must therefore be considered as a highly successful line of plants, they eventually became extinct in the Cretaceous Period.

Cycads (cycad)

      The living cycads are for the most part palmlike, cone-bearing plants, generally of low stature. Although few genera, species, and individuals exist, they are extremely important plants in terms of the information that can be gained from studying them. Their reproduction is very primitive in that they rely on flagellated, motile male gametes (spermatozoids), a feature linking them with other plants fertilized by motile flagellated sperm (zooidogamous), such as ferns, club mosses, and other vascular cryptogams. Without knowledge of fertilization in the cycads and Ginkgo, it is highly unlikely that scientists would have more than remote theories as to the reproductive modes of seed ferns and other extinct groups of seed plants. Research on cycad reproduction is also providing information on the early origins of insect pollination, long thought to have evolved along with the relatively more recent angiosperms, or flowering plants.

Distribution and abundance

      Seed-fern fossils are found in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, but many more have been described from Europe and North America than from other regions, primarily because many of the paleobotanical studies are concentrated there. Pteridosperms have been identified in Australia and India in recent years. In both hemispheres, seed ferns are common in coal measures, from which it may be inferred that, ecologically, they were plants of warm humid climates.

      Abundant fossils of cycadeoids and cycads have been discovered and described from the Mesozoic Era. The oldest remains of undisputed cycads date from the Triassic Period, about 250 to 200 million years ago (e.g., Leptocycas, Antarcticycas), but some problematic forms (e.g., Primocycas, Archaeocycas) are of the Paleozoic Era. Most Mesozoic cycads resembled extant genera (e.g., Cycadites, Pseudocycas, Cycadospadix), and some are referred to present genera (e.g., Macrozamia zamoides, Zamia coloradensis). Fossil forms have been found in many places where they are now extinct (for example, Greenland, Antarctica, Alaska, Argentina, France, Austria), testifying to much milder climates in now temperate and even subarctic regions.

      Ten genera of cycads are widely recognized. There are three endemic Australian genera—Macrozamia (14 species), Lepidozamia (two species), and Bowenia (two species); four American and Caribbean genera—Microcycas (one species), Zamia (about 35 species), and Ceratozamia and Dioon (10 species each); and two African genera—Encephalartos (about 40 species) and Stangeria (one species). The genus Cycas, with about 24 species, is the most wide-ranging, extending from eastern Australia westward across the Pacific and Indian oceans to Madagascar and the east coast of South Africa. In addition to the above well-known genera, a collection of cycad specimens from northwestern Colombia included a new genus now described under the name Chigua. Chigua reveals features hitherto undescribed in any American genus or species, for the specimens, which in most respects resemble Zamia, are unique in having leaflets with midribs and lateral veins, a characteristic formerly known only in Stangeria.

Ecology and habitats

      Cycads are plants of subtropical habitats, where they occupy a variety of ecological situations ranging from rain forests, to mesophytic savannas, to near-desert scrublands. Now nowhere abundant in nature, wild populations of cycads in many regions are endangered. For example, Australian cycads have been moved from the noxious weeds list (because of certain toxic properties dangerous to cattle) to a protected status.

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 centimetres 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 centimetres. 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 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 (archegonium) (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, 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, 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 (seed and fruit) rapidly develops a flesh 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.

Form and function

stem

      Stems of cycads are characteristically short and stout, and 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 high), Macrozamia moorei (up to 18 metres), Dioon spinulosum (up to 16 metres), Lepidozamia hopei (up to 18 metres), and Encephalartos altensteinii (up to 20 metres), but most of the arborescent (treelike) species have trunks only two to three metres 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 five to 10 millimetres wide, but Dioon spinulosum has an exceptional amount of wood, in some specimens up to 10 centimetres 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 that 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, 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 cacad 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.

Roots (root)

      Cycad seedlings initially form a stout, fleshy taproot that persists in subterranean forms for many years but is augmented by secondary roots which also are quite thick and fleshy. The taproots, larger secondary roots, and, in some cases, underground stems, have contractile elements in the pith and cortex that draw the stem more deeply into the ground.

      Branch roots are of two kinds: long-branching geotropic roots and short-branching apogeotropic roots, which are referred to as coralloid because of their irregular, beady appearance. The coralloid roots contain symbiotic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which fix nitrogen and, in association with root tissues, produce such beneficial amino acids as asparagine and citrulline.

      The taproot does not persist long in arborescent cycads but is replaced by large adventitious roots, which obscure the basic taproot system of the seedling. In all cycads, young roots are diarch with a parenchymatous cortex and an outer cover of epidermal scales. In this aspect they also resemble seed ferns. Older roots become triarch or tetrarch, eventually developing substantial amounts of wood and an outer covering of periderm.

Leaves

      The leaves (leaf) of cycads are for the most part once-pinnately compound; however, in the genus Bowenia, the leaves are bipinnate and quite fernlike. Stangeria also has fernlike leaves, and before cones were found to be associated with them the plant was described as a fern in the genus Lomaria. Stangeria leaves and those of the recently described Chigua are unique in possessing pinnately veined leaflets with midribs and side veins. Cycas pinnae also have midribs, but these lack side veins altogether. Pinnae of all other cycads have dichotomously branching, more or less parallel veins. The size of the cycad leaf is variable; Zamia pygmaea, the smallest cycad, has leaves about 20–30 centimetres long, while some species of Macrozamia, Lepidozamia, Ceratozamia, and Cycas have leaves three metres in length.

      In cross section, the pinnae of most cycads are rather thick and sclerophyllous. The stomata are sunken and are of the type known as haplocheilic; that is, the guard cells arise directly from the mother cell, as contrasted with the syndetocheilic type, in which the guard cells are one division removed from the mother cell. The haplocheilic type is found in living conifers, pteridosperms, cycads, Ginkgo, and some others but not in the Cycadeoidea.

Sporophylls and strobili (cone)

      Cycads are universally dioecious. Male plants produce pollen by leaf homologues called microsporophylls, and female plants produce ovules by leaf homologues known as megasporophylls. In all cycads, the microsporophylls are arranged spirally about a cone axis; in all cycads but Cycas, megasporophylls are similarly arranged. Megasporophylls of Cycas do not form a true cone but are arranged in two to three whorls at the stem apex. Later the stem resumes vegetative growth, and the megasporophylls then are interposed between whorls of foliar leaves and cataphylls; the usual arrangement is two to three whorls of leaves, then several whorls of cataphylls, followed by megasporophylls, but variations in this sequence are not unusual.

      The megasporophyll of the Asian Cycas revoluta is considered to most typify the ancestral seed-fern condition. Each megasporophyll consists of a stalk, a fertile portion bearing two to six ovules, and an expanded terminal blade having fringelike “pinnae.” An evolutionary series of plant forms probably led toward the biovulate, peltate megasporophylls of such forms as Encephalartos, Ceratozamia, Microcycas, and Zamia. Microsporophylls similarly vary among cycads; those of Cycas are the more leaflike, those of Zamia less so. Microsporangia, which are found on the abaxial surface of microsporophylls, are usually numerous—several hundred in Cycas, several dozen in Zamia—and arranged in small clusters of two to five. They are the equivalent of sori of ferns and of pteridosperms. The cycad microsporangium resembles a clamshell, being somewhat flattened with an elongate suture.

Classification

      Many botanists believe that extant gymnosperms represent at least two evolutionary lineages: one that leads to the extant conifers, taxads, and possibly Ginkgo and the gnetophytes and another that leads to the cycadophytes, represented today by seed ferns, cycadeoids, cycads, and perhaps others. Cycadophytes probably had their origins among the Devonian progymnosperms (Progymnospermopsida), although the particular antecedents are unknown. Extinct groups are indicated by a dagger (†).

†Division Pteridospermophyta (seed ferns (seed fern))

 Primitive, primarily Paleozoic, primarily small trees or woody vines; large compound fronds; leaf-borne ovules; and microsporangia more or less united as synangia; subdivided into several groups; two orders, Caytoniales and Glossopteridales, persisted into Cretaceous, the latter sometimes included with pteridosperms, but commonly ranked separately and thought to be closely related to certain primitive angiosperms.†Division Cycadeoidophyta (Bennettitophyta)

 Mesozoic; common and cycadlike; differ from cycads in having direct leaf traces, in sometimes being monoecious, and sometimes having bisexual cones.Division Cycadophyta (cycadophyte)

 Gymnospermous plants possessing compound leaves; ovules have 1 integument; seeds borne on either the foliage or megasporophylls; soft, loose wood contains scalariform tracheids and tracheids with multiseriate bordered pits; stem cross sections show wide zones of pith and cortex.

      Order Cycadales (cycad)

 Late Paleozoic? to the present; woody, coniferous plants with compound leaves, simple cones; flagellate motile male gametes; stout, fleshy stems; 4 families currently are recognized.

      Family Cycadaceae

 Generally restricted to species of Cycas; foliar, multiovulate megasporophylls arranged in an indeterminate strobilus; pinnae with a single midrib but lacking lateral, branch veins; 24 species defined.

      Family Zamiaceae

 Singly pinnate compound leaves, bearing leaflets with parallel, dichotomously branching veins (Chigua, if included, would be an exception); simple cones; female cones with biovulate megasporophylls; a total of about 112 species includes Macrozamia, Lepidozamia, Ceratozamia, Encephalartos, Zamia, Microcycas, and Dioon.

      Family Stangeriaceae

 Fernlike leaves bearing pinnae with a prominent midrib and numerous dichotomously branching lateral veins; simple cones; female cones with biovulate megasporophylls; includes only Stangeria paradoxa, a southern African cycad.

      Family Boweniaceae

 Differ from other cycads in possessing bicompound leaves; one genus, Bowenia, with 2 species.

Knut J. Norstog

Additional Reading

A survey of cycadophyte morphology and reproduction is found in Harold C. Bold, Constantine J. Alexopoulos, and Theodore Delevoryas, Morphology of Plants and Fungi, 5th ed. (1987). Other works include Charles Joseph Chamberlain, The Living Cycads (1919, reprinted 1965), a comprehensive but somewhat dated work on the cycads; David J. Jones, Cycads of the World: Ancient Plants in Today's Landscape, 2nd ed. (2002), a comprehensive survey of the extant cycads—their taxonomy, biogeography, and cultivation; Cynthia Giddy, Cycads of South Africa, 2nd rev. ed. (1984), an excellent introduction to cycad morphology, noted for its beautiful colour illustrations of Encephalartos species in natural habitats; Knut J. Norstog and Trevor J. Nicholls, The Biology of the Cycads (1997), another beautifully illustrated treatment of cycad biology; Divya Darshan Pant, Cycas and the Cycadales, 2nd ed. (1973), a fine presentation of all aspects of the life of Cycas and a valuable general reference to their anatomy and morphology; Pál Greguss, Xylotomy of the Living Cycads, with a Description of Their Leaves and Epidermis, trans. from Hungarian (1968), which emphasizes the structure of cycad xylem and includes important information on the habits and leaf morphology of cycads; Thomas N. Taylor and Edith L. Taylor, The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants (1993), a detailed examination of fossil plants, including cycadophytes; and K.U. Kramer and P.S. Green (eds.), Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms (1990), a summary of extant cycad classification.

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