Cycads in the wild

[naturelover]

When harvesting the seeds remember that they are extremely poisonous so always use gloves.

[Joep Stevens]

Just another tip for the newcomers to cycad collection, be careful of overwatering them. They generally do not require watering and research the climate and habitat where they grow (or in some cases grew) naturally. The golden rule is that cycads are more likely to perish from too much water rather than too little water. Linked to this they generally flourish in well draining soils. Some species are hard to grow and or grow slowly while others grow faster.

Best wishes with your cycad collecting.

JOEP STEVENS

[Duke Ellieton]

Excerpt from the South African National Biodiversity Website:

"Cycads are now the most threatened group of organisms. This was revealed in the latest global conservation assessment for cycads by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Cycads are the oldest living seed plants and have survived three mass extinction events in the earth’s history but they are facing a growing threat of extinction. The global conservation assessment of 308 cycad species shows that their status has declined from 53% threatened in 2003 to 62% threatened in 2010.

South Africa is one of the world centres of cycad diversity, with 39 species. It is also one of the global hotspots for threatened cycads: 68% of South Africa’s cycads are threatened with extinction compared to the global average of 62%. 31% from South Africa are classified as Critically Endangered, compared to the global average of 17%. South Africa also has three of the four species classified as Extinct in the Wild, two of which have become Extinct in the wild in the period between 2003 and 2010.

Removal for private collections is the main threat
The main threat in South Africa is removal from the wild for private collections and this is certainly the pressure that resulted in two species becoming Extinct in the Wild. Habitat loss, which is the main cause of decline in other parts of the world, is a lesser problem for South African cycads. More recently, bark harvesting for the medicinal trade has increased in South Africa and has also resulted in declines in cycad populations. It has even resulted in the complete loss of populations in KwaZulu Natal and Eastern Cape."


In the coming weeks I will discuss each one, their natural habitat, their present status and how to cultivate them. All information from other cycad lovers welcome. What can we do to help protect these beautiful plants.

Yes, some of them do occur in ourNational Parks.

Our Cycads:
E. aemulans
E. altensteinii
E. aplanatus
E. arenarius
E. brevifoliolatus
E. caffer
E. cerinus
E. cupidus
E. cycadifolius
E. dolomiticus
E. dyerianus
E. eugene-maraisii
E. ferox
E. friderici-guilielmi
E. ghellinkii
E. heenanii
E. hirsutus
E. horridus
E. humilis
E. inopinus
E. laevifolius
E. lanatus
E. latifrons
E. lebomboensis
E. lehmannii
E. longifolius
E. middelburgensis
E. msinganus
E. natalensis
E. ngoyanus
E. nubimontanus
E. paucidentatus
E. princeps
E. senticosus
E. transvenosus
E. trispinosus
E. umbeluziensis
E. villosus
E. woodii

Coming up shortly all about E. aemulans.

[Duke Ellieton]

South Africa currently has seven cycad species that have fewer than 100 individuals left in the wild. Professor John Donaldson of SANBI warns that South Africa risks losing these cycad species within the next 10 years unless effective measures are put in place to stop the flow of cycads from wild
populations to private gardens. “We have seen dramatic declines in some species over ten years, one of them from ca. 700 plants to fewer than 100, and this is going to result in extinctions,” he said.

Cycads are sometime referred to as “living fossils.” SA Cycads are diverse with respect to growth forms and colour. They can be green leaved, narrow leafed or blue/grey leaved, tall stemmed or short stemmed, some are frost hardy, some have subterranean stems. Some prefer full sun and others semi shade. Cycads can tolerate a wide range of soils but the golden rule for all is that the soil must be well drained

The good news is they are relatively easy to grow and there is no need to plunder natural populations.

[gmlsmit]

CYCAD POACHING

While *** poaching is increasing at an alarming rate, four species of cycads found only in South Africa are on the brink of extinction due to poaching.

Endangered Wildlife Trust's Kirsty Brebner said South Africans like to point fingers at the Chinese and Vietnamese, who use *** horn as medicine but local citizens are buying rare, poached cycads.

Cycads are the most threatened organism on the planet and the crisis is "happening before our eyes", says the South African National Biodiversity Institute's Michele Pfab. "Imagine telling people there were only four *** left in the wild. Well, there is a species of cycad like that," she said. Pfab said rural poor people do the "dirty work" for collectors and breeders in Gauteng, who make up a bigger market for stolen cycads.

Pfab said three species of the 38 cycads found only in South Africa have gone extinct in the past two decades and 12 species are critically endangered.

Fully grown rare cycads can sell for up to R500,000. One can legally buy cycad seedlings, which range from R100 to R3,000 a centimetre. After 10 years of growth, a 1m plant could be worth from R10,000 to R300,000.

"It is a good investment," said legal cycad seller and owner of Cycad World of Innovations, Adolph Fanfoni.
Cycads take 15 years to become reproductive and dealers and breeders don't want to buy a seedling legally and wait years for it to grow. "There are not enough big plants to go round for everybody, so they are worth a lot of money," said Pfab.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust's Rynette Coetzee said that there was a more than 60% shortage of officers that enforce environmental law and compliance in Limpopo. "There is a type of cycad in Limpopo that is poached almost every weekend and will be extinct by 2013 if current poaching levels continue," said Pfab.

"There are severe staff shortages in conservation departments in all provinces," said Coetzee. Law enforcement and compliance officers track and arrest all poachers, whether they poach ***, cycads, lizards, succulent plants, Cape parrots or elephant. As officers are kept busy trying to stop *** poaching, the poaching of many other animals and plants are taking place under their eyes, said Pfab.

Fanfoni said there were at least 200000 cycads in Gauteng gardens, but that many owners don't have permits as required by law. He said government does not have the staff to monitor the 27 "localities where cycads are left in the wild" and check if people with cycads in their gardens have permits.

CYCAD BIOLOGY

Cycads are seed plants typically characterized by a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff, evergreen leaves. They usually have pinnate leaves. The individual plants are either all male or all female (dioecious). Cycads vary in size from having a trunk that is only a few centimeters tall to trunks up to several meters tall. They typically grow very slowly and live for a very long time. Some specimens are known to be as much as 1,000 years old.

Cycads are found across much of the subtropical and tropical parts of the world. They are found in South and Central America (where the greatest diversity occurs), Mexico, the Antilles, southeastern United States, Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and southern and tropical Africa, where at least 65 species occur. Some can survive in harsh semidesert climates, others in wet rain forest conditions and some in both. Some can grow in sand or even on rock, some in oxygen-poor swampy bog-like soils rich in organic material, and some in both. Some are able to grow in full sun, some in full shade, and some in both. Some are salt tolerant.

Cycads belong to the biological division Cycadophyta. There are three extant families of cycads, Cycadaceae, Stangeriaceae, and Zamiaceae. Though they are a minor component of the plant kingdom today, during the Jurassic period they were extremely common. They have changed little since the Jurassic, compared to some major evolutionary changes in other plant divisions.

Cycads are gymnosperms (naked seeded), meaning that their unfertilized seeds (ovules) are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms, which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements. Cycads have very specialized pollinators, usually a specific kind of beetle.

The cycad fossil record dates to the early Permian, 280 mya (million years ago). One of the first colonizers of terrestrial habitats.

Encephalartos woodii is extinct in the wild, and all living specimens are clones of the type. In recent years, many cycads have been dwindling in numbers and may face risk of extinction because of theft and unscrupulous collection from their natural habitats, as well as from habitat destruction. About 23% of the 305 extant cycad species are either critically endangered or endangered, and 15% are vulnerable.

CYCAD POLLINATION

Cycads and the insects that are essential to their reproduction have become locked into a symbiosis where they are entirely dependant on each other.

Without the insects the cycads cannot reproduce and without the cycads the insects cannot reproduce. Both have evolved strategies to ensure the partnership works. For instance male cones of the cycad heat up during the day, attracting the insects that become covered with pollen and as they move about transfer it to the female cones.

Insects lay their eggs in the seeds of the female cones so that only 1 in 200 or 300 may be viable and, taken together with the coning frequency which can be as infrequent as once in 35 years for some species, the recruitment rate can be extremely slow. This is why illegal harvesting of adult plants can lead to extinction in the wild.
The insects like Thrips feed on the pollen in male cycad cones. When they visit female cones the pollen on their bodies is rubbed off and facilitates pollination.

[JenB]

Thank you, gmlsmit.

A couple of years ago we undertook a 25km hike through the Kaapsche Hoop mountains to see a single plant which was proclaimed a national monument. It was an awesome moment seeing such a beautiful specimen still right there where Mother Nature sew her seed.

Reports came in afterwards that from a massive clump only one single mutilated stem remained, that of a plant which was already mature at the time when Jan van Riebeek landed in the Cape of Good Hope. The stems were hacked off and airlifted back to civilization.

The plant grew on privately owned land and the farmer constructed a steel cage around it to try and salvage what remained.

Humans are ruthless when money becomes involved.

[vanderw]

Hi Duke,

I am also a Cycad fanatic!! Must be one of the most beautiful plants in the world!!

Would you perhaps be so kind as to list the Top 5 most endangered species in that order? There seems to be many personal opinions on this. I know number one ofcourse but the ones to follow seems to be a little unclear as some goes by R/cm and others by personal opinion.

Ofcourse anybody is free to give their own "top 5" list! Please note that I am not being disrespectfull by calling them the "Top 5". Just a way of categorizing them. Very sad to hear about the one in Kaapse Hoop!!

Thanks
Chris

[Duke Ellieton]

I must make time to continue with this thread.

Yep gmlsmit and JenB - cycad poaching is a big problem too.

vanderw interesting question and difficult to list as you state we get different opinions. gmlsmit's post quote 3 as extinc in the wild of which E. woodii has been for some time and my information is E. Hirsutus and E. latifrons are the other two. So I would list those as the top three.

Would like to hear your view and see your list.

[vanderw]

Hi,

I would love it if you can conitnue with this thread. Maybe we can get some more guys on board.

I am really no expert. My knowledge is not nearly where I want it to be but hopefully I make up for that with my enthusiasm. I would propably go:

Woodii
Brevifoliolatus
Hirsustus
Latifrons
Heenanii
Dolomiticus


Chris

[JenB]

Lucrative black market threatens South Africa's fauna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKbaT9E ... ture=share

The bit that really hits home is this: "Two thirds of all Cycad species are threatened making them the most endangered organism on the planet".
There is a real chance that they will become extinct long before the *** and elephant and very few people realize that.