Cycas szechuanensis

Cycas szechuanensis is a trunk-forming cycad of south-eastern China, found in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, where it grows in humid lowland and foothill forest, often beside streams. This species of the genus Cycas has a misleading name: it was described in 1975 from plants grown at a temple on Mount Emei, in Sichuan, although it is not native to that province. Since 2021 it has also included the Guangdong plants described in 1996 as Cycas fairylakea, a name still widely used in China. It is one of the most threatened cycads in the country: the IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered.

Key facts about Cycas szechuanensis

  • Accepted name: Cycas szechuanensis W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu (1975), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15); the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), on which POWO is based, also accepts it (consulted through GBIF on 31 October 2026)
  • Former names and synonyms: Cycas fairylakea D.Yue Wang (1996) and Cycas szechuanensis subsp. fairylakea (D.Yue Wang) N.Liu (2004), synonyms according to The World List of Cycads and Species+; in the Flora of China (1999), the name covered plants now placed in Cycas guizhouensis
  • Family: Cycadaceae, order Cycadales; section Stangerioides (Hill 2008)
  • Common names: no English common name attested; in Chinese 四川苏铁 (si chuan su tie, “Sichuan cycad”), in the Flora of China
  • Natural range: China, Fujian and Guangdong provinces according to The World List of Cycads; relict populations reported as far as Wuzhou, in Guangxi (Liang and colleagues 2024)
  • IUCN status: Critically Endangered (CR), assessment by M. Calonje published in 2024, following that of K. D. Hill (2010, CR A2acd)
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II (seeds exempt under annotation #4); Annex B in the European Union; in China, a first-class protected wild plant under the name Cycas fairylakea (2021 national list)
  • Documented hardiness: no published, verifiable data (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, closed forest and moist woodland, understorey and forest edges, often beside streams, on fairly fertile soils, between 25 and 300 m in the populations studied
  • Habit and adult size: trunk up to 2 m, 15 to 33 cm across; 6 to 40 leaves 1.2 to 3.8 m long (Hill 2008)
  • In the UK, US and Australia: no garden found in the UK; Montgomery Botanical Center (3 accessions, 1994) and four other gardens in BGCI in the US; Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (two plants in outdoor beds in Melbourne) and Royal Botanic Garden Sydney (2024 accession)
  • Toxicity: no analysis specific to the species; treat it as poisonous, like all Cycas (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Cycas szechuanensis

By its megasporophylls with a rounded, deeply comb-like blade without a broad terminal spine, and by its large seeds. According to Hill (2008), these are the characters that separate it from Cycas taiwaniana, its closest relative, whose terminal spine is 7 to 30 mm wide at the base and whose seeds are smaller. The description below is Hill’s, for the species as a whole:

  • Trunk: tree-like, up to 2 m tall, 15 to 33 cm across at the narrowest point; crown of 6 to 40 leaves.
  • Leaves: dark green, very glossy, 120 to 380 cm long, flat or barely keeled, with 90 to 220 leaflets, covered when they emerge with a dark brown down that falls as they open; rachis ending in a pair of leaflets or a spine of 8 to 25 mm; petiole 50 to 130 cm (25 to 40% of the leaf), hairless, spiny almost along its whole length.
  • Median leaflets: 230 to 440 mm by 14 to 21 mm, clearly two-toned, spaced 10 to 24 mm apart and slightly twisted on the rachis; flat, with flat margins, a sharp but not prickly tip and a midrib raised on the upper side.
  • Cataphylls: narrowly triangular, soft, 50 to 60 mm and hairy in the typical form; linear, 80 to 100 mm and almost hairless in the fairylakea form.
  • Male cones: not seen by Hill.
  • Megasporophylls: 16 to 24 cm, with brown felt, carrying 4 to 8 hairless ovules; blade round, 70 to 100 mm by 60 to 110 mm, deeply comb-like, with 28 to 42 soft lateral spines of 30 to 50 mm; terminal spine not distinct from the lateral ones, or distinct but narrow (12 to 40 mm long, 2 to 8 mm wide at the base).
  • Seeds: egg-shaped, up to 45 mm long and 35 mm wide, without a fibrous layer, with a warty shell.

The original description by Cheng and Fu (1975), which is very brief, compares the species with Cycas siamensis and Cycas rumphii, and separates it from them by its thick-textured leaves, leaflets no more than 30 cm long and 1.2 to 1.3 cm wide with an asymmetric base, and megasporophylls 19 to 23 cm long, with a blade rounded at the top and comb-like on the edges, usually carrying 3 to 4 pairs of ovules; below the upper 1 to 3 ovules, the outer edge often bears awl-shaped lobes. It gives neither the size of the trunk, nor the length of the leaves, nor that of the cones.

Liang and colleagues (2024) add a field observation: in the Guangdong plants (the fairylakea form), the megasporophylls are packed into a compact, globular structure and have a clearly visible terminal lobe; in Cycas szechuanensis in the strict sense, they are looser and spiny, oval in shape, with a terminal lobe that is barely visible or set to one side. The taxonomic value of these differences is still debated.

Hybrids

No natural or horticultural hybrid has been described. A genomic study of six southern Chinese cycads (Tao and colleagues 2021) did, however, find evidence of ancient gene flow between Cycas szechuanensis and Cycas dolichophylla, a species of northern Vietnam and the far south of China. In cultivation, BGCI PlantSearch lists a Cycas taitungensis × Cycas szechuanensis at Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens, in Texas; such a plant says nothing about the pure species.

Possible confusion

The most frequent confusion concerns names rather than plants: Cycas szechuanensis has in turn been mixed up with Cycas guizhouensis and kept apart from Cycas fairylakea. The useful comparisons are:

  • Cycas taiwaniana: its closest relative, with which it forms the “Cycas taiwaniana complex”; a broad terminal spine on the megasporophylls and smaller seeds (Hill 2008). The plants at the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden in Shenzhen, later described as Cycas fairylakea, had first been wrongly identified as Cycas taiwaniana (Liang and colleagues 2024).
  • The Hainan cycads of the same complex, such as Cycas changjiangensis and the plants described as Cycas hainanensis: in the genomic study by Tao and colleagues (2021), Cycas szechuanensis forms a separate group, sister to the one that unites Cycas changjiangensis and Cycas taiwaniana.
  • Cycas guizhouensis, from the dry valleys of the Nanpan Jiang: the Flora of China (1999) included it in Cycas szechuanensis, and the two species were sometimes confused before the latter was rediscovered in the wild (Hill 2008). A plant grown as Cycas szechuanensis may therefore belong to either.
  • The sago palm, Cycas revoluta: shorter leaves and narrow, stiff leaflets with rolled-under margins, against flat leaflets 14 to 21 mm wide.

The World List of Cycads places Cycas taiwaniana in Fujian and Guangdong, the Hainan plants being attached to it only as synonyms.

Taxonomy

Cycas szechuanensis is accepted by The World List of Cycads; the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), on which POWO is based, also accepts it (consulted through GBIF on 31 October 2026). W. C. Cheng and L. K. Fu described it in 1975 in Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica (13(4): 81–82, pl. 1, figs 7–8), from plants grown at the Fuhu Temple (伏虎寺) on Mount Emei, in Sichuan. The type is collection no. 33221 by Xiong Jihua, Zhang Xiushi and Jiang Xinglin, kept at the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (PE). The original description also cites plants grown at the Chunyang Hall (纯阳殿) on Mount Emei (Xing Gongxia and Lang Kaiyong 1573) and at Leshan (E. H. Wilson 5420), and a collection from Ya’an (Wang Zuobin 8344), without mention of cultivation for the last.

The species belongs to section Stangerioides, the large group of Chinese and Indochinese cycads with soft male cones, hairless ovules and yellow seeds with a warty shell (Hill 2008; Zheng and colleagues 2017). Hill places in the same section Cycas diannanensis, from southern Yunnan, among other Chinese species.

The content of the species has varied a great deal:

  • the Flora of China (Chen and Stevenson 1999) treated it as a broad species of the Nanpan Jiang valleys (north-western Guangxi, south-western Guizhou, eastern Yunnan), including Cycas guizhouensis, and thought the type came from sterile plants brought to Sichuan from that region;
  • Hill (2008) separated Cycas guizhouensis again and recognised two subspecies within Cycas szechuanensis: the typical form, then known only from eastern Fujian, and subsp. fairylakea from eastern Guangdong, distinguished by the narrow but clear terminal spine of the megasporophylls and by longer, less hairy cataphylls;
  • Feng and colleagues (2021, Taxon) studied the six taxa of the complex with three methods of species delimitation based on molecular data; according to the abstract of their article, they recognise only two species, Cycas taiwaniana and Cycas szechuanensis, which absorbs fairylakea without distinguishing it. The World List of Cycads and Species+ follow this treatment.

The name Cycas fairylakea nevertheless remains in use: in 2024, Liang and colleagues chose to keep it, because it appears on China’s official list of protected plants, because earlier work relied on incomplete sampling, and because their field observations show differences in the megasporophylls. Cycas longlinensis does not appear among the synonyms of Cycas szechuanensis in The World List of Cycads.

Etymology and history

The epithet refers to Szechuan, now Sichuan, where the cultivated plant used as the type came from (Haynes 2022, as taken up by The World List of Cycads); Hill (2008) adds that the name was given in the mistaken belief that the species was native to that region.

The history of the species is shaped by this origin in cultivation. According to Hill (2008), the typical form was found in the wild only in 1999, in eastern Fujian, after being considered extinct: the 1997 Red List even listed it as Extinct, in a confused treatment that also included it, as a synonym, in Cycas guizhouensis. The Guangdong plants were discovered in the wild in November 1999 in Shenzhen, at the Meilin Reservoir and in Tanglangshan Park (Liang and colleagues 2024; Hill dates this discovery to 2000).

Other Chinese sources are more pessimistic about the typical form: Zheng and colleagues (2017) report no wild population, only cultivated female plants (in Sichuan, Guizhou, Fujian and Yunnan), and Tao and colleagues (2021), citing them, speak of about 300 cultivated plants in Guangdong, Fujian and Sichuan. The discrepancy probably comes from the species concept adopted, but no source explains it clearly.

Common names

No English common name is attested. The Flora of China gives the Chinese name 四川苏铁 (si chuan su tie, “Sichuan cycad”), but for the species in the broad sense of 1999.

In the wild

According to The World List of Cycads, Cycas szechuanensis lives in China in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Hill (2008) describes it in closed moist forest or moist woodland. The best-known populations are those of Guangdong, studied under the name Cycas fairylakea: in Shenzhen, more than 2,000 plants at the Meilin Reservoir and fewer than 700 at Tanglangshan; nearly 450 at Taishan and more than 2,000 at Yangjiang (Liang and colleagues 2024). The same authors cite other localities in Guangdong (Shaoguan, Meizhou, Zhaoqing with the Dinghushan reserve, Yangchun), and outside the province at Zhao’an (Fujian) and Wuzhou (Guangxi); most of these populations contain only female plants of the same age, without regeneration, and the authors see them as relicts rather than viable populations.

The plant seeks damp places, the banks of streams and ditches and fairly fertile soils, and is rare in dry, poor sites (Chinese studies cited by Liang and colleagues 2024). At Taishan it once grew in the understorey and at forest edges below 100 m, before the eucalyptus plantations; today it survives mainly on steep slopes between 150 and 300 m. At Yangjiang it grows on gentle slopes between 25 and 300 m. Guangdong has a humid subtropical climate, with a mean annual temperature of 18 to 24 °C (64.4 to 75.2 °F) and 1,300 to 2,500 mm of rain, and is exposed to typhoons.

In the two populations of Taishan and Yangjiang, the sex ratio, determined with a genetic marker, is close to 1:1 (165 females to 157 males at Taishan, 667 to 570 at Yangjiang). The age structure, however, reveals high mortality among young plants and poor natural regeneration. The only populations where females dominate are the relicts mentioned above.

Conservation status and regulation

The IUCN lists Cycas szechuanensis as Critically Endangered (CR). The assessment by K. D. Hill published in 2010 rested on criterion A2acd, that is, a severe observed or estimated population decline (The World List of Cycads); a new assessment by M. Calonje was published in version 2024-2 of the Red List (reference checked on Crossref), and GBIF still gives the CR category (consulted on 21 October 2026). According to Liang and colleagues (2024), the IUCN now accepts the inclusion of fairylakea in the species.

The threats cited are habitat fragmentation, human disturbance, invasive plants and forestry (plantations of Cunninghamia lanceolata, pines and eucalyptus); poaching is said to have declined since the public came to know it as a protected plant (Liang and colleagues 2024). The genomic study by Tao and colleagues (2021) found in Cycas szechuanensis the lowest genetic diversity of the six species studied and a high level of inbreeding, a sign of long population decline. In China, the name Cycas fairylakea appears in the first class of the 2021 national list of protected wild plants, and the city of Shenzhen has created a protected area at the Meilin Reservoir.

Like every species in the genus except Cycas beddomei, Cycas szechuanensis is covered by CITES Appendix II, where the family Cycadaceae has been listed since 4 February 1977. The listing carries annotation #4 (version in force since 5 March 2026): seeds, pollen, seedlings or tissue cultures obtained in vitro in sterile containers, and cut flowers of artificially propagated plants are exempt, while international trade in live plants requires an export permit. In the European Union, the species is listed in Annex B of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, in the version set by Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026. Species+ records the species, with Cycas fairylakea as a synonym, and confirms this status (consulted on 13 October 2026).

This information does not replace the official texts: check the regulations in force before any purchase or exchange, ask for proof of origin, and prefer seed-grown plants raised in cultivation, all the more so for a Critically Endangered species.

Growing Cycas szechuanensis

The species has long been in cultivation: its type comes from a temple in Sichuan, and Liang and colleagues (2024) report that the inhabitants of Yangjiang plant it as an ornamental in their yards. Yet no institution consulted has published growing advice specific to the species. Its natural habitat, damp and on fertile soil, suggests a free-draining but not arid compost and regular watering during growth, without standing water: this is a deduction from the habitat, not a trial result.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

No result in the ground with a date, a place and a temperature has been published in Europe or the United States. In Australia, the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria grow two plants in outdoor beds at Melbourne (see below), the only documented case of open-air cultivation found outside China; the census does not record how they have fared in winter.

Container cultivation

In France, amateurs have sown seed sold under this name: on the Fous de palmiers forum, several posts in 2010 describe its germination (see Propagation), and in 2012 a participant who had spotted a young plant at an online seller wondered whether the species could stand frost. None of these posts gives a result of growing outdoors. The Jardin zoologique tropical at La Londe-les-Maures, in the Var, has published no observations on this species.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

  • United Kingdom: no garden is known to list it.
  • United States: the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists three accessions, all from 1994 according to their numbers. BGCI PlantSearch adds Houston Botanic Garden, Norfolk Botanical Garden (Virginia), San Diego Botanic Garden and the San Diego Zoo; the two San Diego gardens also list plants under the name Cycas fairylakea. A listing shows a declaration, not necessarily a living plant.
  • Australia: the online census of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (downloaded on 19 October 2026) records two plants of one accession of wild origin (RBGM 960517) at Melbourne Gardens, in outdoor beds: the Tecoma Shelter Bed (planted in September 2019) and the Sinojackia Bed (planted in July 2022). The online catalogue of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney (updated on 1 October 2026) lists a 2024 accession (S2024-0402, four plants), without a bed.

No English-language growing report with a date, a place and a temperature is documented.

Propagation

The plant is dioecious: a male and a female plant are needed to obtain seed. No germination protocol specific to the species has been published, and the reports found concern commercial seed whose identity cannot be checked. On the Fous de palmiers forum, in 2010, one amateur reports germinating his seeds in a closed plastic box, then seeing the half-buried seed sink into the compost, which another participant put down to the contractile roots of cycads; another, who had sown in early May, had seedlings with 1 to 3 leaves by the end of August, while a few swollen seeds had not yet germinated, and other seeds were still without a shoot in November. On the Italian forum Tropicamente, a grower near Ravenna reports in 2009 that his seeds, inert all summer, germinated only after the fleshy coat was removed and a week on a constant heat source, which he put at about 35 °C (95 °F). Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4: for a Critically Endangered species, insist that they come from cultivated plants.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species is documented. Like all cycads, it can be attacked in cultivation by scale insects, including the cycad scale, Aulacaspis yasumatsui, but no particular susceptibility and no risk of Phytophthora are documented for the species.

Cold hardiness

No published, verifiable cold tolerance data exist for Cycas szechuanensis. It lives in a humid subtropical climate with mild winters. The idea that it might be hardier than other Chinese cycads, raised on forums in 2009 and 2012, has not been confirmed by any result.

European experience

No result in the ground or in a pot has been published in France, whether on the Mediterranean coast, on the Atlantic seaboard or inland, and no dated frost episode concerns the species. On the Fous de palmiers forum, the species appears only in sowings, collection lists and questions, without temperatures or results; the Jardin zoologique tropical at La Londe-les-Maures has published nothing about it. In Italy, the only posts found, on the Tropicamente forum (Ravenna, 2009), concern the purchase and sowing of commercial seed, with no later result.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold value has been published in these countries. The two plants in outdoor beds at Melbourne are the only clue to open-air cultivation in a temperate climate, but the census gives no information on their condition. In the UK, where no garden lists it, treat it as a plant for a frost-free glasshouse until trials are published.

Toxicity and precautions

It should be treated as poisonous, even though no analysis specific to Cycas szechuanensis exists. The risk is well documented in the genus: the tissues of Cycas, and above all their seeds, contain cycasin, which digestion converts into methylazoxymethanol, toxic to the liver and nervous system, along with a neurotoxic amino acid, BMAA. The ASPCA lists the sago palm among plants toxic to dogs, cats and horses. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, keep seeds and leaves out of reach of children and pets, and wear gloves to clean seeds. If any part is swallowed, contact a poison centre, a doctor or a vet straight away.

Traditional uses

According to the villagers interviewed by Liang and colleagues (2024) at Taishan and Yangjiang, the trunk was ground into flour or cut into slices to be eaten in times of famine. This use does not prove that the plant is safe and should not be copied (see Toxicity and precautions). Today the species is mainly grown as an ornamental.

Frequently asked questions

Does it really come from Sichuan?

No. The type was collected from plants grown at a temple on Mount Emei, in Sichuan, but the species grows wild much further east, in Guangdong and Fujian.

Are Cycas szechuanensis and Cycas fairylakea the same plant?

Yes, according to current taxonomy (The World List of Cycads, following Feng and colleagues 2021): Cycas fairylakea is a synonym. Some Chinese botanists nevertheless still use it as a species name, and it appears on the Chinese list of protected plants.

How can I tell it from Cycas taiwaniana?

By the round blade of the megasporophylls, without a broad terminal spine, and by larger seeds, up to 45 mm (Hill 2008). Without cones, the distinction is difficult.

Is it endangered?

Yes, severely. The IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered (2024 assessment), and it is protected in the first class in China under the name Cycas fairylakea.

Does it need more water than Cycas revoluta?

Probably, but this is a deduction. It lives in moist forest, near streams, on fertile soils; no published growing trial confirms it.

Can it be grown outdoors in the UK?

Nobody knows. No verifiable cold data exist, and the only open-air plants found, at Melbourne, have no published record: in the UK, grow it in a pot under frost-free glass.

Where can I find plants or seed?

Only from legal sources, for plants or seed raised in cultivation. The species is Critically Endangered and listed by CITES; moreover, seed sold under this name may belong to other plants, such as Cycas guizhouensis.

Is it poisonous?

It should be assumed so. No analysis specific to the species exists, but every cycad studied contains dangerous toxins, especially in the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Cheng, W.C. & Fu, L.K. (1975). [Cycas szechuanensis W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu.] Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica 13(4): 81–82, pl. 1, figs 7–8. [Original description: Latin diagnosis, Chinese text and specimens cited.]
  • Wang, D.Y. (1996). Cycas fairylakea D.Yue Wang. In Wang, F.X. & Liang, H.B. (eds), Cycads in China: 54. Guangdong Science and Technology Press. [Description of the synonym fairylakea; cited after IPNI and Hill (2008).]
  • Chen, C.J. & Stevenson, D.W. (1999). Cycadaceae. In Wu, Z.Y. & Raven, P.H. (eds), Flora of China 4: 1–7. Science Press, Beijing; Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St Louis. [Broad concept of the species; online version.]
  • Hill, K.D. (2008). The genus Cycas (Cycadaceae) in China. Telopea 12(1): 71–118. doi:10.7751/telopea20085804 [Description (pp. 94–96), subspecies, distinction from Cycas taiwaniana, history, section Stangerioides.]
  • Hill, K.D. (2010). Cycas szechuanensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T42041A10635911. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T42041A10635911.en [CR A2acd assessment; reference taken from The World List of Cycads and Crossref.]
  • Calonje, M. (2024). Cycas szechuanensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T42041A260590101. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-2.RLTS.T42041A260590101.en [Current assessment; reference checked on Crossref, CR category from GBIF.]
  • Feng, X.Y., Wang, X.H., Chiang, Y.C., Jian, S.G. & Gong, X. (2021). Species delimitation with distinct methods based on molecular data to elucidate species boundaries in the Cycas taiwaniana complex (Cycadaceae). Taxon 70(3): 477–491. doi:10.1002/tax.12457 [Inclusion of Cycas fairylakea in Cycas szechuanensis.]
  • Liang, D., Wei, Y., Wang, P., Liu, X., Wang, P., Liu, Y., Zeng, S. & Wang, R. (2024). Comparative ecological traits and environmental responses of two distinct populations of the critically endangered Cycas fairylakea in Guangdong, China. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 12: 1490107. doi:10.3389/fevo.2024.1490107 [Populations, habitat, climate, sex ratio, threats, uses, choice of name; peer-reviewed article.]
  • Tao, Y., Chen, B., Kang, M., Liu, Y. & Wang, J. (2021). Genome-wide evidence for complex hybridization and demographic history in a group of Cycas from China. Frontiers in Genetics 12: 717200. doi:10.3389/fgene.2021.717200 [Genetic diversity, gene flow, demographic history.]
  • Zheng, Y., Liu, J., Feng, X. & Gong, X. (2017). The distribution, diversity, and conservation status of Cycas in China. Ecology and Evolution 7(9): 3212–3224. doi:10.1002/ece3.2910 [Section, known cultivated plants, no wild population reported.]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.550.1.1 [Etymology, taken up by The World List of Cycads.]
  • Calonje, M., Stevenson, D.W. & Osborne, R. (2026). The World List of Cycads, version 2026.08.15. Montgomery Botanical Center, Coral Gables. doi:10.5281/zenodo.21958524 [Reference checklist.]