Cycas fairylakea

Cycas fairylakea is the name given in 1996 to a cycad from Guangdong, in southern China, where it grows in humid lowland and foothill forest. This name in the genus Cycas is no longer accepted as a species: The World List of Cycads treats it as a synonym of Cycas szechuanensis, following the molecular study by Feng and colleagues (2021), whereas Ken Hill had made it a subspecies in 2008. The name is nevertheless still widely used in China, where it designates a plant protected at the highest level and Critically Endangered. This page explains the name and what is known about the plants that bear it.

Key facts about Cycas fairylakea

  • Status of the name: synonym of Cycas szechuanensis W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu (1975) according to The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) and Species+; a subspecies for Hill (2008); still an accepted name in GBIF; POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Author of the name: Cycas fairylakea D.Yue Wang (1996); combination Cycas szechuanensis subsp. fairylakea (D.Yue Wang) N.Liu (2004)
  • Family: Cycadaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no English name attested; the epithet refers to the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden (仙湖, Xianhu) in Shenzhen
  • Natural range: China, mainly Guangdong (Shenzhen, Taishan, Yangjiang and other localities); relict populations reported in Fujian and Guangxi
  • IUCN status: no separate assessment; Cycas szechuanensis, which includes it, is Critically Endangered (CR), in the assessment by M. Calonje published in 2024, after that of K. D. Hill (2010, CR A2acd)
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II (the whole family; seeds exempt under annotation #4); Annex B in the European Union; in China, a first-class protected wild plant under this name (2021 national list)
  • Documented hardiness: no data; a British nursery rates it USDA zone 9b without supporting observations (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: in the wild, understorey and edges of humid evergreen forest, often beside streams, on fairly fertile soils, between 25 and 300 m
  • Habit and adult size: trunk 0.5 to 1.8 m tall and 22 to 33 cm across; crown of 20 to 40 leaves 2.1 to 2.7 m long (Hill 2008)
  • In the UK, US and Australia: under this name, San Diego Botanic Garden and the San Diego Zoo (BGCI); for Cycas szechuanensis as a whole, see that page
  • Toxicity: no study of this plant; treat it as poisonous, like all Cycas (see Toxicity and precautions)

A taxonomic note

In short, Cycas fairylakea now designates a Guangdong form of Cycas szechuanensis, but some Chinese botanists still use it as a species name. Wang Dingyue published it in 1996 in the book Cycads in China. In 2008, in his revision of the cycads of China (Telopea), Ken Hill treated it as a subspecies of Cycas szechuanensis, taking up a combination published by N. Liu in 2004. In 2021, Feng and colleagues studied the six taxa of the “Cycas taiwaniana complex” with three methods of species delimitation based on chloroplast DNA, nuclear genes and microsatellites; according to the abstract of their article, they recognise only two species, Cycas taiwaniana and Cycas szechuanensis, and make Cycas fairylakea a synonym of the latter. The World List of Cycads and Species+, the official CITES database, follow this treatment.

The name has not disappeared, though. In 2024, Liang and colleagues, in an ecological study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, deliberately kept it, for three reasons: it appears on China’s official list of protected wild plants; earlier work lacked reference specimens and complete sampling; and their field observations show differences in the shape of the megasporophylls and female cones. Readers will therefore meet the name sometimes as a synonym of Cycas szechuanensis, sometimes as a species name in the Chinese conservation literature. The characters described below are those that Hill gives for subspecies fairylakea.

How to recognise Cycas fairylakea

It is a medium-sized, tree-like cycad with a short trunk and large, very glossy, dark green leaves. According to Hill (2008), the plants referred to this name differ from the typical form of Cycas szechuanensis in the terminal spine of the megasporophylls (the fertile leaves of female plants), narrow but clearly distinct, and in longer, less hairy cataphylls (the scale leaves protecting the crown). In detail, after Hill’s description:

  • Trunk: tree-like, 0.5 to 1.8 m tall, 22 to 33 cm across at the narrowest point.
  • Leaves: 20 to 40 in the crown, dark green, very glossy, 210 to 270 cm long, flat or barely keeled, with 126 to 162 leaflets; rachis often ending in a spine of 8 to 25 mm; petiole 49 to 80 cm (20 to 35% of the leaf), hairless, spiny almost along its whole length.
  • Median leaflets: simple, 305 to 360 mm by 12 to 19 mm, narrowed to 5 to 7 mm at the base, spaced 20 to 22 mm apart on the rachis, flat, with a sharp but not prickly tip and a midrib raised on the upper side.
  • Young leaves: covered with a dark brown down that falls as the leaf opens (a character Hill gives for the species as a whole).
  • Cataphylls: linear, soft, finely silky or hairless, 80 to 100 mm long.
  • Male cones: not seen by Hill.
  • Megasporophylls: 18 to 20 cm, with brown felt, carrying 4 to 6 hairless ovules; blade round, 80 to 90 mm by 60 to 70 mm, deeply comb-like, with 32 to 42 soft lateral spines of 38 to 42 mm; terminal spine usually distinct, 12 to 40 mm long and 2 to 8 mm wide at the base.
  • Seeds: not seen by Hill for the subspecies; for the species as a whole, he gives egg-shaped seeds up to 45 mm long, without a fibrous layer.

Liang and colleagues (2024) add a field observation: in the Guangdong plants, the megasporophylls are packed into a compact, globular structure; each is diamond-shaped or triangular, broad at the base and narrow at the tip, with lateral lobes that become gradually shorter towards the top and a smooth outer face. In Cycas szechuanensis in the strict sense, the megasporophylls 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 under the name Cycas fairylakea. A genomic study of six southern Chinese cycads (Tao and colleagues 2021) did, however, find relatively strong signals of hybridisation between Cycas dolichophylla and Cycas szechuanensis, according to its abstract; it does not say whether the samples analysed belonged to the fairylakea form.

Possible confusion

The most obvious confusion is with Cycas szechuanensis itself, of which fairylakea is now considered a form. The others concern the related species of southern China:

  • Cycas szechuanensis in the strict sense, from eastern Fujian: shorter (50 to 60 mm), hairy cataphylls, and megasporophylls without a distinct terminal spine (Hill 2008), arranged more loosely according to Liang and colleagues (2024).
  • Cycas taiwaniana: according to Hill, it differs from Cycas szechuanensis in the broad terminal spine of its megasporophylls (7 to 30 mm wide at the base, against 2 to 8 mm in the fairylakea form) and in smaller seeds. The plants at the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden had first been wrongly identified as Cycas taiwaniana (Liang and colleagues 2024), and Chen and Stevenson (1999) still included them in that species, according to Hill.
  • The Hainan cycads of the same complex, such as Cycas hainanensis and Cycas changjiangensis: Feng and colleagues (2021) place them with Cycas taiwaniana, whereas fairylakea joins Cycas szechuanensis.
  • Cycas guizhouensis: according to Hill, Cycas szechuanensis was sometimes confused with it before being rediscovered in the wild.
  • The sago palm, Cycas revoluta, by far the most widely grown: much narrower, stiff leaflets with rolled-under margins, against flat leaflets 12 to 19 mm wide.

Taxonomy

Cycas fairylakea D.Yue Wang is now a synonym of Cycas szechuanensis W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu for The World List of Cycads, which also lists the combination Cycas szechuanensis subsp. fairylakea (D.Yue Wang) N.Liu among the synonyms; POWO, protected against automated access, could not be consulted. The name was published in 1996, on page 54 of Cycads in China, edited by F. X. Wang and H. B. Liang (IPNI 993110-1). According to Hill (2008), the holotype is a specimen collected on 16 May 1994 from cultivated plants (Wang & Peng 2978) and kept in the herbarium of the Shenzhen botanical garden (SZG). In the type citation, Hill mentions cultivation at the South China Botanical Garden, but in the etymology the Fairy Lake garden: this inconsistency in the source could not be resolved.

The history of the name has three stages. The Flora of China (Chen and Stevenson 1999) merged these plants with Cycas taiwaniana. Hill (2008) recognised two subspecies within Cycas szechuanensis: the typical form, then known only from eastern Fujian, and subspecies fairylakea from eastern Guangdong. Feng and colleagues (2021, Taxon) recognised only two species in the whole complex, Cycas szechuanensis, which absorbs fairylakea, and Cycas taiwaniana; their article could only be read in abstract. GBIF still treats Cycas fairylakea as an accepted name, a sign that the databases are not all aligned.

In practice, a plant labelled Cycas fairylakea should be treated as a Cycas szechuanensis from Guangdong.

Etymology and history

The epithet fairylakea comes from the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden (仙湖植物园, Xianhu, “fairy lake”) in Shenzhen, where the plants used for the description were grown (Hill 2008). The epithet szechuanensis refers to Sichuan: the type of Cycas szechuanensis came from a plant grown at the Fuhu Temple on Mount Emei, in the mistaken belief that the species was native to that region.

For a long time the plant was known only in cultivation. Wild populations were discovered in November 1999 in Shenzhen, at the Meilin Reservoir and in Tanglangshan Park, according to Liang and colleagues (2024); Hill (2008) dates this discovery to 2000. Following it, the city of Shenzhen created a protected area for the plant at the Meilin Reservoir.

Common names

No English common name is attested, and the British nursery Trebrown gives “none known”. The sources consulted give no verified Chinese name either; the epithet is a Latinised form of the English name of the Shenzhen garden (Fairy Lake, Xianhu in Chinese).

In the wild

The plants named Cycas fairylakea live mainly in Guangdong, in southern China. According to Liang and colleagues (2024), the Meilin Reservoir alone held more than 2,000 plants and Tanglangshan Park fewer than 700. Other populations were later found in Qujiang district (Shaoguan) and at Heshan (Jiangmen), but they declined for lack of protection, down to a few cultivated individuals and two groups of female plants. The same authors cite other localities in Guangdong (Lechang and Danxia, Shaoguan; Pingyuan and Dabu, Meizhou; the Dinghushan reserve and Huaji, Zhaoqing; the Ehuangzhang reserve, Yangchun), as well as Makeng, in Zhao’an county (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.

In 2024, the same team studied two recently discovered populations at Taishan and Yangjiang, on the Guangdong coast, which they estimate at nearly 450 plants at Taishan and more than 2,000 at Yangjiang. At Taishan the plants once grew in the understorey and at forest edges below 100 m, before the eucalyptus plantations arrived; today they survive mainly on steep slopes between 150 and 300 m. At Yangjiang they grow on gentle slopes between 25 and 300 m. The plant communities are subtropical evergreen monsoon forests; according to earlier work cited by the authors, the plant seeks damp places, the banks of streams and ditches and fairly fertile soils. The province has a warm, rainy climate (mean annual temperature 18 to 24 °C (64.4 to 75.2 °F), 1,300 to 2,500 mm of rain) and is exposed to typhoons.

The sex of 322 plants at Taishan (165 females, 157 males) and of 1,237 at Yangjiang (667 females, 570 males) was determined with a genetic marker: the sex ratio is close to 1:1. The age structure, with many young plants and few adults, nevertheless reveals high mortality in the early stages and poor natural regeneration. According to earlier studies, only the Shenzhen population produces normally developed embryos.

Conservation status and regulation

The IUCN Red List does not assess Cycas fairylakea separately: the name is included in Cycas szechuanensis, listed as Critically Endangered (CR). The assessment by K. D. Hill published in 2010 (criterion A2acd), cited by The World List of Cycads, was followed by a new assessment by M. Calonje published in version 2024-2 of the Red List (reference checked on Crossref), and GBIF relays the CR category for Cycas szechuanensis, while listing Cycas fairylakea as not evaluated (consulted on 21 October 2026); the Red List could not be consulted directly. Hill (2008) already gave the CR status for subspecies fairylakea. Liang and colleagues (2024) cite habitat fragmentation, human disturbance, invasive plants and forestry (plantations of Cunninghamia lanceolata, pines and eucalyptus) as threats; poaching is said to have declined since the public came to know it as a protected plant. In China, the name Cycas fairylakea appears in the first class of the 2021 national list of protected wild plants.

Like every species in the genus except Cycas beddomei, Cycas szechuanensis, and Cycas fairylakea with it, 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. 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, in the version set by Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026. Species+ lists Cycas fairylakea as a synonym of Cycas szechuanensis, present in China (consulted on 12 October 2026). This information does not replace the official texts: check the regulations in force before any purchase or exchange, and ask for proof that the plant was raised in cultivation.

Growing Cycas fairylakea

In short: no growing advice has been published for this plant, and no garden in the UK or Australia lists it under this name. What follows is drawn from its habitat.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Liang and colleagues (2024) only report that villagers near the populations studied grow it as an ornamental in their yards. Its natural habitat (humid evergreen forest, stream banks, fertile soils, a warm, rainy subtropical climate) suggests a plant that likes summer heat and moisture, in part shade or dappled light: this is a deduction from the habitat, not a growing result. As with all cycads, a free-draining compost limits the risk of rot. For the only documented open-air plants of Cycas szechuanensis outside China, at Melbourne, see the Cycas szechuanensis page.

Container cultivation

No container growing is documented under this name. In France, on the Fous de palmiers forum, the name appears only in lists of seed sought or bought (2011–2013), with no growing result, and the Jardin zoologique tropical at La Londe-les-Maures, in the south of France, has published nothing on this plant.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

  • United States: BGCI PlantSearch lists plants under the name Cycas fairylakea at San Diego Botanic Garden and the San Diego Zoo (California), two gardens that also list Cycas szechuanensis; these are declarations by the gardens, which do not prove that a plant is alive today. The online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (Florida) has no record under this name, only under Cycas szechuanensis (three accessions from 1994).
  • United Kingdom and Australia: no record under this name in BGCI PlantSearch, in the online catalogues of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, or in the inventory of cycads in British, American and Australian gardens compiled for this site. The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney grow Cycas szechuanensis, without specifying the form.

Elsewhere, BGCI PlantSearch lists the name in three Chinese gardens: the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden in Shenzhen, the South China Botanical Garden and Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden. No report from an English-speaking grower could be read; PalmTalk and Dave’s Garden could not be consulted.

Propagation

The plant is dioecious: a male and a female plant are needed for fertile seed. No germination protocol specific to this plant has been published. Liang and colleagues recall studies showing that the germination rate is low and that only the Shenzhen population produces well-developed embryos. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4, but any collection in the wild would go against the plant’s protection in China.

Pests and diseases

According to Chinese studies cited by Liang and colleagues (2024), the wild populations also suffer from diseases and pests, without further detail. In cultivation, cycad scales, including the Asian cycad scale, Aulacaspis yasumatsui, can affect all species.

Cold hardiness

No cold-tolerance data exist for Cycas fairylakea, either in the wild or in cultivation. The wild populations grow near the Guangdong coast, in a subtropical climate with a mean annual temperature of 18 to 24 °C (64.4 to 75.2 °F), and nothing shows that the plant can stand frost. The British nursery Trebrown places Cycas fairylakea in USDA zone 9b (average annual minimum of −3.9 to −1.1 °C, 25 to 30 °F): this is a commercial rating, with no growing observation to support it.

European experience

No growing result has been published in Europe, in the ground or in a pot, and no dated frost event concerns this plant. On the French forum Fous de palmiers, an enthusiast asked in 2013 for information on its growth and hardiness, and none of the posts found reports a result; the Jardin zoologique tropical has published no observation. On the Italian forum Tropicamente, the name szechuanensis appears only in connection with buying and sowing commercial seed in 2009, without any growing or cold result.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold reading or dated growing report was found under this name. In the UK, until trials are published, the safest choice is a pot kept frost-free in winter.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity analysis specific to this plant 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. The ASPCA lists the sago palm (Cycas revoluta) as poisonous to dogs, cats and horses. Until proven otherwise, treat the plant as poisonous: keep seeds and leaves out of reach of children and pets, and wear gloves to clean the seeds. If any part is swallowed, contact a poison centre, a doctor or a vet straight away.

Traditional uses

Only one use is documented. In a survey of villagers at Taishan and Yangjiang, Liang and colleagues (2024) were told that in times of famine the trunk was ground into flour or cut into slices to be eaten. This use must not be copied: without long detoxification, cycad tissues are dangerous (see Toxicity and precautions). The villagers also grow the plant as an ornamental in their yards.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cycas fairylakea a valid species?

It depends on the source. The World List of Cycads and Species+ treat it as a synonym of Cycas szechuanensis, Hill (2008) as a subspecies; some Chinese botanists, such as Liang and colleagues in 2024, still use it as a species name, not least because it appears on the Chinese list of protected plants.

Where does the name fairylakea come from?

From the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden (Xianhu, “fairy lake”) in Shenzhen, where the plants described in 1996 were grown.

How can it be told from Cycas szechuanensis in the strict sense?

Mainly by the megasporophylls. Hill (2008) notes a narrow but distinct terminal spine and longer, less hairy cataphylls; Liang and colleagues (2024) describe megasporophylls packed into a compact, globular structure. The taxonomic value of these differences is debated.

Where does it grow?

Mainly in Guangdong, China: in Shenzhen (Meilin Reservoir, Tanglangshan Park), at Taishan, at Yangjiang and in a few other localities. Relict populations, almost all female, are reported as far as Fujian and Guangxi.

Is it endangered?

Yes, severely. Cycas szechuanensis, which includes it, is Critically Endangered for the IUCN (2024 assessment), and Cycas fairylakea is protected in the first class in China.

Can it be grown outdoors in the UK?

Nobody knows. No cold data or growing results exist; it comes from a subtropical region of China, and a pot kept frost-free in winter is the safest choice.

Is it poisonous?

It must be assumed so. No analysis exists for this plant, but all the cycads studied contain serious toxins, especially in the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Wang, D.Y. (1996). Cycas fairylakea D.Yue Wang. In: Wang, F.X. & Liang, H.B. (eds), Cycads in China: 54. [Original description; not consulted, cited after IPNI, Hill (2008) and The World List of Cycads.]
  • Cheng, W.C. & Fu, L.K. (1975). Cycas szechuanensis. Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica 13(4): 81. [Original description of the species that now includes the name; not consulted for this page.]
  • 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. [Treatment merging these plants with Cycas taiwaniana; cited after Hill (2008).]
  • Hill, K.D. (2008). The genus Cycas (Cycadaceae) in China. Telopea 12(1): 71–118. doi:10.7751/telopea20085804 [Revision with key and description of subspecies fairylakea (pp. 94–96); full text consulted.]
  • Hill, K.D. (2010). Cycas szechuanensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T42041A10635911. [CR A2acd assessment; reference taken from The World List of Cycads, page not consulted.]
  • 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 relayed by GBIF, text not consulted (access blocked).]
  • 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 [Study behind the synonymy; abstract read on Crossref, full text not 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 [Hybridisation signals between Cycas dolichophylla and Cycas szechuanensis; abstract read.]
  • 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 [Discovery history, populations, ecology, local uses, choice of name; peer-reviewed article, full text consulted.]
  • 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.]