Cycas multifrondis: species or hybrid of Cycas bifida?

Cycas multifrondis is a Chinese cycad with divided leaflets, described in 1996 by Wang Dingyue from a plant grown at Xiamen Botanical Garden and attributed to Yunnan. It is one of the most disputed names in the genus Cycas: The World List of Cycads accepts it as a species, whereas Ken Hill (2004, 2008) regarded it as a hybrid form between Cycas bifida and Cycas dolichophylla, which has led several checklists to sink it into Cycas bifida or to write it Cycas × multifrondis, and the Flora of China treated it as a synonym of Cycas micholitzii. No wild population is known with certainty, and the IUCN has not assessed it.

Key facts about Cycas multifrondis

Accepted name: Cycas multifrondis D.Yue Wang (1996), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15); treated as a hybrid, Cycas × multifrondis (Cycas bifida × Cycas dolichophylla), by the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, the database behind POWO (through GBIF); POWO could not be consulted directly
Former names and synonyms: no synonym of its own; cited by Hill and colleagues (2004) as a hybrid under Cycas bifida, excluded from the species by Hill (2008), placed in the synonymy of Cycas micholitzii by the Flora of China (1999) (see Taxonomy)
Family: Cycadaceae, order Cycadales; section Stangerioides (Zheng and colleagues 2017)
Common names: no common name attested in any language
Natural range: China (Yunnan) according to The World List of Cycads; south-eastern Yunnan to northern Vietnam according to the WCVP; no wild population recorded by Zheng and colleagues (2017)
IUCN status: Not Evaluated (NE)
CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II through the listing of the family Cycadaceae (seeds exempt under annotation #4); Annex B in the European Union; the name is not in Species+
Documented hardiness: no measurement; an Italian grower reports leaves scorched at −2 °C (28.4 °F) without protection (2010) (see Cold hardiness)
Light and soil: wild habitat unknown; partial shade according to the same grower
Habit and adult size: protologue not consulted; leaves up to 3 m in cultivation according to a grower
In the UK, US and Australia: Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (2021, plot 119), San Diego Botanic Garden and Naples Botanical Garden (BGCI) in the United States; no British or Australian garden found
Toxicity: no analysis specific to the taxon; treat it as poisonous, like all Cycas (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Cycas multifrondis

In general appearance Cycas multifrondis looks very like Cycas debaoensis, but its leaflets are less finely divided. Wang’s original description (1996) could not be consulted, and no modern flora or revision describes the taxon, since Hill treats it as a hybrid; the only observations found come from growers.

An Italian grower who raised it from seed notes in September 2010 on the Tropicamente forum that its overall look is almost identical to that of Cycas debaoensis, but that the leaflets of Cycas multifrondis, despite its name, are much less divided, broader and longer, darker green and wavy-edged. In his experience the plant prefers partial shade, where it can produce leaves three metres long. Like all members of section Stangerioides, it should have an underground stem, soft male cones and yellow seeds with a warty shell (Hill 2008; Zheng and colleagues 2017), but these characters have not been described for the taxon.

If Hill’s interpretation is followed, a plant intermediate between Cycas bifida, with forked leaflets, and Cycas dolichophylla, with undivided leaflets, would be expected to have divided leaflets, but less finely divided than in the most dissected species. That is a deduction, consistent with the Italian grower’s observation, not a published description.

Hybrids

The very status of Cycas multifrondis is bound up with hybridisation. Hill (2008) reports that Cycas dolichophylla grows in contact with Cycas bifida in several Chinese populations, where a range of intermediate forms is interpreted as a hybrid swarm; for him, the type of Cycas multifrondis is one of those forms. A genetic study of six Cycas from southern China (Tao and colleagues, Frontiers in Genetics, 2021) confirmed substantial genetic mixing between Cycas dolichophylla and several related species, including Cycas bifida.

In cultivation, Cycas revoluta × Cycas multifrondis hybrids circulate; one was offered for exchange on the French forum Fous de palmiers in 2019. Their cold tolerance has not been published, and they tell us nothing about the pure taxon.

Hill (2008) gives no direction for the cross and describes leaflets of Cycas bifida forking up to three times.

Possible confusion

Cycas debaoensis: very similar overall, but leaflets more finely and more abundantly divided (growing observation cited above); in Hill’s key (2008) its leaflets are themselves divided in a feather-like (pinnate) way.
Cycas bifida: leaflets forked near the base, up to three times, leaves 2 to 5 m long (Hill 2008); one of the supposed parents.
Cycas multipinnata: only one or two leaves, up to 6 m long, with leaflets divided in a pinnate way (Hill 2008).
Cycas longipetiolula, another of Wang’s names (1996), refers according to Hill to hybrid forms between Cycas bifida and Cycas multipinnata; the two names circulate together in collections.
Cycas micholitzii, from central Vietnam and Laos, to which the Flora of China attached the name.

When buying, a young plant labelled Cycas multifrondis cannot be identified with certainty, since the first leaves are not characteristic; and according to Hill the name covers a hybrid form rather than a stable species.

Taxonomy

This is the heart of the matter: the reference sources disagree.

Wang (1996) described Cycas multifrondis as a species in Cycads in China (page 80), from a plant cultivated at Xiamen Botanical Garden (Wang 5024, 28 June 1994). According to The World List of Cycads the type is held at the SYS herbarium; according to Hill (2008), at the herbarium of Fairy Lake Botanical Garden in Shenzhen (SZG), with an isotype at NF.
The Flora of China (Chen and Stevenson 1999) placed the name in the synonymy of Cycas micholitzii, in the broad sense of the time.
Hill, Nguyen and Loc (2004) cite it, according to The World List of Cycads, as a hybrid under Cycas bifida, hence its treatment as a synonym of Cycas bifida in some lists.
Hill (2008), in his revision of the Cycas of China, excluded it from the species: the type is a form of the hybrid swarm between Cycas dolichophylla and Cycas bifida.
Chen, Yang and Li (2014), on the contrary, regard it as an independent species, according to Zheng and colleagues (2017), who place it in section Stangerioides.
The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) accepts it as a species, citing Hill’s treatments as synonymy or an excluded name, without setting out a new argument.
The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, which feeds POWO, accepts it in hybrid form as Cycas × multifrondis (GBIF).

This site follows The World List of Cycads, the reference checklist for cycads, while flagging the disagreement. In practice, a plant sold under this name is at best an intermediate form of the bifida–dolichophylla complex.

Etymology and history

The epithet comes from the Latin multi-, “many”, and frons, frondis, “frond, leaf”, in reference to its number of leaves, high compared with related species (Haynes 2022, after The World List of Cycads). The taxon was described from a botanic garden plant, which explains why IPNI gives south-eastern China (Fujian, where Xiamen lies, and Guangdong) as its original distribution, whereas The World List of Cycads attributes it to Yunnan.

Seed was sold in Europe at the end of the 2000s: a Polish grower says on the Fous de palmiers forum that he bought some in May 2009 from a specialist seed merchant, and Italian growers mention buying and sowing seed in 2010.

Common names

No common name is attested, in English or any other language.

In the wild

The natural range of Cycas multifrondis is not known with certainty. The World List of Cycads gives Yunnan; the WCVP gives south-eastern Yunnan to northern Vietnam. Zheng and colleagues (2017), in their review of the distribution and conservation of the Cycas of China, recorded no wild population; they mention, with a question mark, the Mount Dawei nature reserve in Yunnan.

Conservation status and regulation

Cycas multifrondis has not been assessed by the IUCN (NE, according to The World List of Cycads). Zheng and colleagues (2017) stress that the Cycas of China are widely threatened and that, for this taxon, no wild population was found during their surveys.

The name does not appear in Species+, the CITES database, but the whole family Cycadaceae has been in Appendix II since 4 February 1977, so the plant falls under that appendix. The listing carries annotation #4 (CoP20 version, in force since 5 March 2026): seeds, pollen, seedlings and tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers, and cut flowers of artificially propagated plants, are not covered by CITES. In the European Union the family falls under Annex B of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, whose annexes in force are set by Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026.

This general information does not replace the official texts: check the regulations in force before any purchase or exchange, and prefer plants raised from seed in cultivation.

Growing Cycas multifrondis

No institution has published growing information on Cycas multifrondis; what is known comes from amateur growers. They describe a large-leaved plant that likes partial shade and whose foliage suffers from −2 °C (28.4 °F).

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

The only plant located in a public garden is at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, in southern Florida, where the Garden Explorer places accession 2021-0755 in plot 119; the garden says nothing about how it grows. In Europe, a Polish grower reports on the Fous de palmiers forum that he sowed seed in 2009, planted four plants in the ground in March 2014 under heated protection (a 50 W cable buried at 30 cm, thermostat set at about 3 °C (37.4 °F)), then dug them all up in October 2015 because they were growing poorly, to overwinter them indoors. This experience, in a cold continental climate, says nothing about the taxon’s hardiness, but shows how hard it is to grow outdoors where winters are severe.

Container cultivation

In the United Kingdom and in most of the United States and southern Australia, growing it in a pot, kept frost-free under glass in winter, is the prudent option; that is a deduction from the reports above, not a published result. A grower in Ravenna (Emilia-Romagna, Italy) advised on the Tropicamente forum in 2010 against trying it, finding it “rather tropical”, and recommended Cycas debaoensis instead. The Jardin zoologique tropical at La Londe-les-Maures, in the south of France, has published no observation on this taxon.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

Cycas multifrondis is very rare in public collections, and only in the United States. A garden listed in the BGCI PlantSearch database (consulted in October 2026) has declared the species at some point, which does not prove that a living plant is there today.

United States: the Garden Explorer of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Coral Gables, Florida; updated on 16 October 2026) lists accession 2021-0755 in plot 119. San Diego Botanic Garden (Encinitas, California) and Naples Botanical Garden (Florida) list the taxon in BGCI PlantSearch. It is not in the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center.
United Kingdom and Australia: no garden declares Cycas multifrondis in BGCI PlantSearch, and it does not appear in the online garden catalogues.

No growing report from an English-language forum could be read: PalmTalk and Dave’s Garden are behind a protection page and were not consulted.

Propagation

Like all Cycas, Cycas multifrondis is dioecious: a male and a female plant are needed to obtain seed. Plants in cultivation come from seed; the Italian grower quoted above expected a first cone ten to twelve years after sowing. If the taxon is indeed a hybrid form, as Hill thinks, its seed will not necessarily reproduce the mother plant. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the taxon is documented. Scale insects, including the Asian cycad scale Aulacaspis yasumatsui, threaten all cultivated Cycas, and a waterlogged substrate leads to rot.

Cold hardiness

No reliable measurement exists. The only benchmark is a growing report: an Italian grower writes on the Tropicamente forum in August 2010 that the plant scorches its leaves at −2 °C (28.4 °F) if unsheltered, but recovers well in the growing season, and that its hardiness is the same as that of Cycas debaoensis; neither the locality nor the growing conditions are given. A grower in Ravenna, on the same forum, considers it “rather tropical”.

No dated cold episode and no in-ground result have been published elsewhere in Europe, in North America or in Australia; the Polish trial was carried out under heated protection and abandoned. No source gives a USDA zone for the taxon. In the United Kingdom, keep it frost-free under glass.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity data specific to Cycas multifrondis have been published, but the risk is documented for the genus: in Cycas, all parts of the plant are poisonous and the seeds most of all. They contain cycasin, which is converted in the body into methylazoxymethanol, toxic to the liver and nervous system, along with a neurotoxic amino acid, BMAA (NC State Extension; ASPCA). The ASPCA lists the sago palm (Cycas revoluta) as toxic to dogs, cats and horses.

Wear gloves to handle seeds and their fleshy coat, and keep seeds and leaves out of reach of children and pets. If any part is swallowed, contact a poison centre, a doctor or a vet straight away.

Traditional uses

No use is documented for this taxon.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cycas multifrondis a true species?

It depends on the source. The World List of Cycads accepts it as a species, as do Chen, Yang and Li (2014); Ken Hill (2004, 2008) saw it as a hybrid form between Cycas bifida and Cycas dolichophylla, and the database behind POWO writes it Cycas × multifrondis.

Is it the same plant as Cycas bifida?

No, but some lists place it in the synonymy of Cycas bifida, because Hill first cited it under that species as a hybrid. For Hill, it is an intermediate form between Cycas bifida and Cycas dolichophylla.

How can it be told from Cycas debaoensis?

By its less divided, broader, longer, darker and wavy-edged leaflets, according to an Italian grower who raised both; the overall look is very similar.

Where does it grow in the wild?

Nobody knows for certain. The type comes from a plant cultivated at Xiamen; checklists attribute it to Yunnan, or even to northern Vietnam, but no wild population had been recorded by 2017.

Is it hardy?

Barely. An Italian grower reports leaves scorched at −2 °C (28.4 °F) without protection, with good recovery afterwards; no other reliable value exists.

Is it endangered?

Nobody knows: the IUCN has not assessed it, and no wild population is known with certainty.

Is it poisonous?

It should be assumed to be. It has not been analysed, but all Cycas studied contain serious toxins, especially in the seeds.

Sources

Reference sites

The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), Cycas multifrondis: https://cycadlist.org/scientific_name/169 — protologue, type (Wang 5024, Xiamen, 1994, SYS), etymology after Haynes (2022), Yunnan, NE, treatments by Hill (2004, 2008) and the Flora of China. Checklist of the IUCN Cycad Specialist Group, reliable; consulted in October 2026.
GBIF, World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Cycas ×multifrondis: https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/206945329 — treatment as an accepted hybrid, range “China (SE. Yunnan) to N. Vietnam”. Kew checklist that feeds POWO, reliable; consulted through the API on 19 October 2026.
IPNI, Cycas multifrondis: https://www.ipni.org/n/993114-1 — place of publication (Cycads in China: 80, 1996), original distribution (Fujian, Guangdong). Reference nomenclatural index; consulted through the API on 19 October 2026.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Garden Explorer, Cycas multifrondis: https://fairchild.gardenexplorer.org/taxon-200991.aspx — accession 2021-0755, plot 119 (update of 16 October 2026). Garden’s own catalogue, reliable for presence; consulted on 21 October 2026.
BGCI PlantSearch: https://plantsearch.bgci.org/ — San Diego Botanic Garden and Naples Botanical Garden declaring the taxon. Global database of garden lists, undated per garden: a listing does not prove a living plant; consulted in October 2026.
Fous de palmiers forum (France), “Culture de Cycas debaoensis et multifrondis”: https://www.fousdepalmiers.fr/html/forum/viewtopic.php?p=325400 — in-ground planting under heated protection in Poland (2014), followed in the thread “Cycas debaoensis” until the plants were lifted (October 2015). Dated growing report, cited anonymously.
Tropicamente forum (Italy), “Cycas multifrondis”: https://www.tropicamente.it/forums/topic/cycas-multifrondis/ — leaves scorched at −2 °C without protection, partial shade, comparison of leaflets with Cycas debaoensis; Ravenna grower’s advice (2010). Dated growing reports, cited anonymously.
ASPCA Animal Poison Control, Sago Palm: https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/aspca-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/sago-palm — toxicity of cycads to dogs, cats and horses, cycasin, symptoms. Veterinary poison control centre, reliable; genus-level information.
NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Cycas revoluta: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/cycas-revoluta/ — cycasin present in all parts of the plant. University extension service, reliable; genus-level information.

Bibliography

Wang, D.Y. (1996). Taxonomy of Cycas in China. In: Wang, F.X. & Liang, H.B. (eds), Cycads in China, pp. 33–142 (Cycas multifrondis, p. 80). [Protologue; not consulted, reference taken from The World List of Cycads and IPNI.]
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, and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St Louis. [Synonymy with Cycas micholitzii; not consulted, after The World List of Cycads.]
Hill, K.D., Nguyen, H.T. & Loc, P.K. (2004). The genus Cycas (Cycadaceae) in Vietnam. The Botanical Review 70(2): 134–193. doi:10.1663/0006-8101(2004)070[0134:TGCCIV]2.0.CO;2 [Cited as a hybrid under Cycas bifida (p. 191) according to The World List of Cycads; text not consulted.]
Hill, K.D. (2008). The genus Cycas (Cycadaceae) in China. Telopea 12(1): 71–118. doi:10.7751/telopea20085804 [Excluded name: type interpreted as a form of the Cycas dolichophylla × Cycas bifida hybrid swarm; type and herbaria; full text consulted.]
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 [No wild population recorded, treatment by Chen, Yang and Li (2014), section; full text consulted.]
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 mixing between Cycas dolichophylla and related species; abstract consulted.]
Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.550.1.1 [Etymology; used through 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; consulted directly.]