Cycas distans

Cycas distans is a cycad of the southern Cape York Peninsula, in northern Queensland, Australia, known from only two populations in the catchment of the Mitchell River. This species of the genus Cycas, described in 2017 by Paul Forster and Bruce Gray, resembles Cycas platyphylla but grows a taller, thicker trunk, up to 3.5 m, and bears very small male cones and megasporophylls. Its name recalls its isolation, far from any other cycad. The IUCN lists it as Endangered (2022).

Key facts about Cycas distans

  • Accepted name: Cycas distans P.I.Forst. & B.Gray (2017), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15); POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: none
  • Family: Cycadaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: none attested, in English or in any other language
  • Natural range: Australia, Queensland, southern Cape York Peninsula (Mitchell River catchment, Cook district); two populations
  • IUCN status: Endangered (EN, criteria B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii)), assessment by P. Forster published in 2022, EN according to GBIF
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II (seeds exempt under annotation #4); Annex B in the European Union; Endangered in Queensland according to its official WildNet profile (known from a search-engine extract)
  • Documented hardiness: no data (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: open eucalypt woodland on red sandy soils derived from lateritic surfaces, between 195 and 240 m above sea level
  • Habit and adult size: trunk to 3.5 m tall and 15 to 30 cm across, with a swollen base; leaves 60 to 117 cm long
  • In the UK, US and Australia: no garden record found
  • Toxicity: no data for the species; treat it as poisonous, like all Cycas (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Cycas distans

At first sight, Cycas distans looks very like Cycas platyphylla: the same foliage, blue-grey at first and then olive green, and the same keeled leaves. According to the original description, it differs in its sturdier habit (trunk up to 3.5 m tall and 15 to 30 cm across), its longer leaflets, its very small, narrowly ovoid male cones and its much smaller megasporophylls with a short terminal spine. In detail, after Forster and Gray (2017):

  • Trunk: up to 3.5 m tall and 15 to 30 cm in diameter, with a bulbous base; rarely two-headed, following damage to the growing point.
  • Leaves: 60 to 117 cm long, slightly wavy towards the tip, strongly keeled, olive green, blue-grey and felted when young; the axis usually ends in a pair of leaflets; petiole 25 to 34 cm long, often spineless or with up to 26 small teeth towards the top.
  • Leaflets: 156 to 244 per leaf, 8 to 10 mm apart, flexible, straight or curved forwards; median leaflets 13 to 23.6 cm long and 5.5 to 6.5 mm wide (up to 8.5 mm), with a blue bloom when young and recurved margins.
  • New growth: densely covered in rusty-brown hairs.
  • Cataphylls (the scales that protect the growing point): linear, 8 to 10 cm long, soft at first but soon sharp, with tawny-rusty felt.
  • Male cones: narrowly ovoid, 12 to 20 cm long and 4 to 9.5 cm across; microsporophylls 14 to 28 mm long, with an upturned apical spine of 4 to 7 mm.
  • Megasporophylls (the fertile leaves of female plants): 9 to 16 cm long, rusty brown then grey, bearing 2 to 4 ovules; blade broadly triangular, 25 to 35 mm long and 19 to 30 mm wide, strongly toothed; apical spine 5 to 10 mm long.
  • Seeds: ovoid, 28 to 32 mm long and 23 to 29 mm wide; fleshy coat about 3 mm thick, with a blue bloom, creamy yellow then purplish red when ripe.

Hybrids

No hybrid is documented. On the contrary, the authors stress that the nearest populations of other Cycas are 150 to 190 km away, a distance that in their view rules out any present-day gene flow.

Possible confusion

  • Cycas platyphylla, its closest relative, which grows further east in the same catchment (upper Walsh River valley, between 500 and 840 m): trunk rarely over 1.5 m and 10 to 15 cm across, shorter leaflets (9 to 17 cm), larger, ovoid male cones (15 to 20 cm by 8 to 11 cm), megasporophylls 16 to 32 cm long with a blade of 50 to 80 mm and a spine of 20 to 25 mm; it grows on skeletal soils on rocky slopes.
  • Cycas media subsp. banksii and Cycas tuckeri, the geographically closest other cycads (150 to 190 km away), which live in different habitats and in east-draining catchments.

Taxonomy

Cycas distans is accepted by The World List of Cycads; POWO could not be consulted directly. Paul Forster, of the Queensland Herbarium, and Bruce Gray, of the Australian Tropical Herbarium, described it in 2017 in Austrobaileya (volume 10, pages 74 to 84). The type was collected on 25 September 2015 in the Mitchell River catchment (Gray 9689 & Kitchener, holotype at BRI, isotype at CNS).

On morphological grounds, the authors relate it to Cycas platyphylla, from which it would have arisen through geographical isolation. They recall the model of speciation they favour for the Australian Cycas: species that arose by genetic drift in isolated populations and are defined by a combination of many small differences rather than by a single clear-cut character. They suggest either ancient transport of seed by the floods of the Mitchell River or the extinction of intermediate populations; no genetic analysis of the species has been published to settle the question.

Etymology and history

The epithet distans is the present participle of the Latin verb disto, “to stand apart”: it alludes to the isolation of the species, separated from other cycads by long distances, and to its two disjunct populations.

The plant was probably first collected in 1988 by Christine Dalliston (northern population), in tall bloodwood and stringybark woodland at about 220 m according to the herbarium label published through GBIF, but the specimen, a small juvenile leaf and a few microsporophylls, was insufficient. In September 2015, Bruce Gray relocated a large population near the Mitchell River (southern population), first spotted by Colin Hughes, and collected fertile material there; a second visit, in November 2015, allowed the plants to be described in the field.

Common names

No common name is attested for this species, in English or in any Aboriginal language, in the sources consulted.

In the wild

Cycas distans grows in the catchment of the Mitchell River, which drains the southern Cape York Peninsula towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, west of the Palmerville and Mitchell faults. The plants form dense to scattered stands in woodland of Eucalyptus tetrodonta with scattered Corymbia clarksoniana and Erythrophleum chlorostachys, on red sandy soils derived from lateritic surfaces, between 195 and 240 m above sea level. The labels of the type collection describe “woodland dominated by bloodwoods and stringybarks” on a “red sandy flat” with a grassy understorey.

In the only population visited recently, the authors estimated in 2017 that there were probably fewer than 1,000 plants over two or three hectares, with very few seedlings or juveniles, apart from a few seedlings clustered at the foot of a female plant. The pollinator and phenology are not documented. The authors note that the large seeds of Cycas hardly disperse beyond the parent plant, except by gravity or water.

Conservation status and regulation

Cycas distans is listed as Endangered (EN) by the IUCN, under criteria B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii) (very small extent of occurrence and area of occupancy, declining habitat quality), in Paul Forster’s assessment published in 2022; the IUCN data relayed by GBIF give the same category (consulted on 21 October 2026), and Crossref lists two versions of this 2022 assessment. The Red List itself could not be consulted directly. The original description had already recommended this status: only two populations, none in a protected area, and poor recruitment. The only threat identified by the authors is an inappropriate fire regime, which can harm reproduction and the establishment of young plants. In Queensland, the WildNet profile of the species lists it as Endangered under the Nature Conservation Act 1992, according to a search-engine extract; the page itself, which requires JavaScript, could not be read.

Like every species in the genus except Cycas beddomei, Cycas distans is listed in CITES Appendix II, through the listing of the family Cycadaceae, included since 4 February 1977. The listing carries annotation #4 (CoP20 version, in force since 5 March 2026): seeds, pollen, seedlings or tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers, and cut flowers of artificially propagated plants, are not subject to CITES, whereas international trade in the plants themselves requires an export permit. Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States apply CITES through their own national legislation; in the European Union the species is in Annex B of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, whose annexes in force are set by Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026. Species+, the official CITES database, does not yet list this name, published in 2017 (search of 3 October 2026): protection follows from the listing of the whole family, which covers every species, named or not. This general information does not replace the official texts: check the rules in force before buying or exchanging plants, and ask for proof that the plant was raised in cultivation.

Growing Cycas distans

In short: Cycas distans is not documented in cultivation anywhere, and no institution has published growing advice. Its habitat suggests a plant for full sun and deep, free-draining sandy soil in a tropical climate with a long dry season; outside the tropics it would need a glasshouse.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

No growing report has been found on the English, French or Italian forums consulted. Its natural setting, deep, well-drained sandy soils in open woodland in the seasonally dry tropics, suggests a plant for full sun, watered sparingly, in a frost-free climate; this is a deduction from the habitat, not a documented growing result. The species does not appear in the 2021 note in which the French nurseryman Simon Lavaud ranks the Australian Cycas by difficulty of cultivation in Europe.

Container cultivation

In the United Kingdom and other temperate regions, a plant of this species would need a large pot in a heated glasshouse, with a very free-draining, sandy mix and as much light as possible; again, this is a deduction, not a tested recipe. The Jardin zoologique tropical at La Londe-les-Maures, in the south of France, has published no observation on Cycas distans, so no Mediterranean experience can be passed on.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

No record of Cycas distans was found in BGCI PlantSearch, in the online catalogues of Montgomery Botanical Center (Florida), the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, or in the inventory of cycads in British, American and Australian botanic gardens compiled for this site. No report from a private grower in these countries could be read; PalmTalk and Dave’s Garden could not be consulted.

Propagation

Like all Cycas, Cycas distans is dioecious: a male and a female plant are needed for fertile seed. No germination data specific to the species have been published. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4, but any collecting in the wild would conflict with the protection of the species in Queensland.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species is documented. Cycad scales, including the Asian cycad scale, Aulacaspis yasumatsui, can affect all cultivated species.

Cold hardiness

No cold-tolerance data exist for Cycas distans. Its range lies entirely within the tropics of northern Australia, at low altitude; nothing allows us to say that it tolerates frost.

European experience

No growing result has been published in Europe, in the open ground or in a pot. Searches of the French forum Fous de palmiers and the Italian forum Tropicamente found no report for this species, and no dated frost event concerns it.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No planting, cold reading or growing report was found. No USDA zone can be given.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity analysis specific to Cycas distans has been found. The risk is, however, well documented in the genus: Cycas tissues, and the seeds above all, contain cycasin, which is converted during digestion into methylazoxymethanol, toxic to the liver and nervous system, along with a neurotoxic amino acid, BMAA. North Carolina State University notes that cycasin is present in all parts of the plant, and the ASPCA lists the sago palm (Cycas revoluta) as poisonous to dogs, cats and horses, with vomiting, sometimes bloody diarrhoea, jaundice and liver damage that can be fatal. Until proven otherwise, treat the plant as poisonous: wear gloves to handle the seeds and their fleshy coat, pick up fallen seeds, and keep plants and seeds 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 traditional use specific to Cycas distans has been found in the sources consulted.

Frequently asked questions

Where does Cycas distans grow?

Only in the Mitchell River catchment, in the southern Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia, in open eucalypt woodland on red sandy soils.

What does “distans” mean?

“Standing apart”, from the Latin disto: the name refers to the isolation of the species, 150 to 190 km from the nearest other cycads, and to its two separate populations.

How can it be told from Cycas platyphylla?

By its size and its reproductive organs. Cycas distans has a taller, thicker trunk (up to 3.5 m and 15 to 30 cm), longer leaflets, smaller male cones and much smaller megasporophylls with a short spine.

Is it endangered?

Yes. The IUCN lists it as Endangered: it is known from only two populations, neither in a protected area, with few young plants and a risk from unsuitable fire regimes.

Is it in cultivation?

Not as far as can be documented: no botanic garden declares it, and no grower’s report has been published.

Can it be grown outdoors in the UK?

No. Nothing indicates that it tolerates frost; it is a tropical species from low altitude.

Is it poisonous?

It must be assumed so. It has not been studied, but all parts of Cycas are poisonous, especially the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Forster, P.I. & Gray, B. (2017). Cycas distans P.I.Forst. & B.Gray (Cycadaceae), a new species from southern Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Austrobaileya 10(1): 74–84. doi:10.5962/p.299889 [Original description; full text consulted.]
  • Forster, P. (2022). Cycas distans. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T126334977A126335017. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T126334977A126335017.en [Assessment, EN B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii), cited by The World List of Cycads; reference checked on Crossref, which also lists another version (e.T126334977A243416262); EN category relayed by GBIF; page not consulted.]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.550.1.1 [Etymologies given by The World List of Cycads; not consulted directly.]
  • 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.]