Cycas indica

Cycas indica is a cycad endemic to India, known only from Hassan district in the state of Karnataka, where it forms extensive colonies on flat outcrops of sandstone or quartzite. Described in 2007 by Anders Lindström and Ken Hill, this member of the genus Cycas differs from its close relative Cycas circinalis in its suckering habit and its almost spineless megasporophylls. Indian botanists had earlier called it Cycas circinalis var. swamyi, a name never validly published, and it was described a second time in 2008 as Cycas swamyi, now a synonym. The IUCN lists it as Endangered.

Key facts about Cycas indica

  • Accepted name: Cycas indica A.Lindstr. & K.D.Hill (2007), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15); POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: Cycas swamyi Rita Singh & P.Radha (2008), a synonym; “Cycas circinalis var. swamyi”, a name used in the Indian literature but never validly published
  • Family: Cycadaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no English name attested; no vernacular name recorded in the sources consulted
  • Natural range: India, Karnataka (Hassan district)
  • IUCN status: Endangered (EN, criteria B1ab(ii,iii,v)+2ab(ii,iii,v) according to The World List of Cycads), in the assessment by Anders Lindström published in 2023; category confirmed by the Red List data relayed by GBIF
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II (seeds exempt under annotation #4); Annex B in the European Union
  • Documented hardiness: no data (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: flat ground on sandstone or quartzite
  • Habit and adult size: trunk up to 4 m tall and 10 to 23 cm across, suckering; leaves 97 to 133 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 indica

Cycas indica is recognised by its reduced megasporophylls (the fertile leaves of female plants), whose compact blade carries only a few small, irregular teeth and a barely marked tip; by its leaves, shorter than those of Cycas circinalis, with narrower leaflets; and by its suckering habit: the plant produces offsets at the base and forms clumps. Its seeds are almost spherical. Description after the original publication (Lindström and Hill 2007):

  • Trunk: upright, up to 4 m tall and 10 to 23 cm across, not swollen at the base; bark thin and smooth, cataphylls and leaf bases persistent.
  • Leaves: 97 to 133 cm long, dark green, semi-glossy, flat, with 50 to 71 leaflets; some down persists on the petiole and leaflets; petiole 28 to 32 cm (25 to 35% of the leaf), spiny over 30 to 90% of its length; basal leaflets 72 to 110 mm long, not reduced to spines.
  • Median leaflets: 12 to 24 cm long and 7 to 8 mm wide, paler below, 12 to 15 mm apart, narrowed to 3 to 4 mm at the base; margins flat; midrib raised above, flat below.
  • Cataphylls (the scale leaves protecting the crown): narrowly triangular, soft, with very fine down, 5 to 8 cm long.
  • Male cones: narrowly ovoid, yellow, 30 to 40 cm long and about 15 cm across; microsporophylls about 66 mm by 28 mm, with a prominent, sharply upturned apical spine about 41 mm long.
  • Megasporophylls: about 18 cm long, with brown down, carrying 6 hairless ovules; blade 25 to 55 mm by 19 to 22 mm, with fewer than ten small, irregular lateral spines no more than 2 mm long; apical spine not distinct from the lateral ones, 1 to 3 mm.
  • Seeds: globose, 32 to 35 mm by 28 to 30 mm; fleshy coat yellow when ripe, without a fibrous layer; inner shell smooth; no spongy layer.

Hybrids

No natural or cultivated hybrid is documented for this species.

Possible confusion

  • Cycas circinalis, from south-western India: longer leaves, broader leaflets, bluish new growth, megasporophylls with a clear apical spine and better-developed lateral teeth; not suckering.
  • Cycas sphaerica, from eastern India: also has globose seeds, but its megasporophylls have a distinct apical spine.
  • Cycas annaikalensis, from the Western Ghats of Kerala: smooth, steel-grey trunk, more numerous leaflets and megasporophylls with a distinct apical spine.

Taxonomy

Cycas indica is a name accepted by The World List of Cycads; POWO could not be consulted directly. Anders Lindström, of Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden (Thailand), and Ken Hill, of the National Herbarium of New South Wales, described it in 2007 in their revision of the Cycas of India (Telopea 11(4): 481–483, fig. 3), following fieldwork carried out between 2000 and 2002. They placed it in section Cycas, the group with hairless ovules and megasporophylls that are not comb-like, next to Cycas circinalis, among the species with neither a spongy nor a fibrous layer in the seed.

The authors explain that this plant already appeared in the Indian literature (Pant 1962, 1973; Singh 2006) under the name Cycas circinalis var. swamyi, which had never been validly or legitimately published. Pant had noted its unusual branching habit, without comparing it rigorously with Cycas circinalis from other regions. In 2008 Rita Singh and P. Radha described the same plant as a new species, Cycas swamyi, in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society (158(3): 430–435). Published after Cycas indica, that name is treated as a synonym by The World List of Cycads, and Species+ also attaches it to Cycas indica. For the reader, this means that both names, and the informal variety name, may refer to the same plant.

Etymology and history

The epithet indica means “of India”, a reference to the species being endemic to that country (Lindström and Hill 2007). The former informal name swamyi is not explained in the sources consulted.

The type was collected on 8 October 1970 by the botanist Cecil J. Saldanha at Nagpuri, Chick Tirupathii, in Hassan district (Saldanha 15197, holotype at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh). The plant had been known much earlier: the authors cite collections by Cameron kept at Kew, dated 1882 to 1884, made “20 or 35 miles from Bangalore, where the ranges of the Western Ghats meet the plateaux”, and a collection by Buchanan distributed by Wallich (no. 8587B, Kew and British Museum). No history of introduction into cultivation is documented.

Common names

No common name is recorded for this species, in English, French or any language of India, in the sources consulted.

In the wild

Cycas indica is known only from Hassan district, in Karnataka, southern India. It is common on flat ground on sandstone or dominated by quartzite, where it forms extensive colonies (Lindström and Hill 2007). The Digital Flora of Karnataka of the Indian Institute of Science (JCB herbarium) repeats this information and gives it as endemic to Hassan district. GBIF holds eight records under this name (consulted on 21 October 2026), seven of them iNaturalist observations from Karnataka made between 2008 and 2024.

Its basal offsets, which allow it to form clumps, are a rare trait in the Cycas circinalis group. Its pollinator, phenology and seed dispersers are not documented.

Conservation status and regulation

Cycas indica is listed as Endangered (EN) by the IUCN, under criteria B1ab(ii,iii,v)+2ab(ii,iii,v) according to The World List of Cycads: a small extent of occurrence and area of occupancy, with a decline in the area occupied, in habitat quality and in the number of mature individuals. The assessment, by Anders Lindström, was published in version 2023-1 of the Red List (reference checked on Crossref), and the Red List data relayed by GBIF confirm the category (consulted on 21 October 2026); the Red List itself could not be consulted. In 2007 the authors of the original description considered the data insufficient (Data Deficient), a category still repeated by the Digital Flora of Karnataka. The specific threats to the species are not detailed in the sources consulted.

Like every species in the genus except Cycas beddomei, Cycas indica 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 exempt, 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, names the species, with Cycas swamyi as a synonym and India as the range state, and confirms this status (searches of 3 and 12 October 2026). This general information does not replace the official texts: check the rules in force before buying or exchanging plants, ask the seller for proof of origin and prefer plants raised from cultivated seed.

Growing Cycas indica

In short: no growing advice specific to Cycas indica has been published, and no grower’s report was found. Its natural setting, flat sandstone or quartzite ground in southern India, points to a plant of tropical climates, sun and free-draining soil; this is a deduction from its habitat, not a growing result.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

No planting in the open ground is documented outside its range. Only frost-free tropical and near-tropical climates can be considered, and no garden in the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia is known to grow it (see below).

Container cultivation

In temperate climates it would need a heated glasshouse or a pot brought in for the winter. Its suckering habit should in principle make it suitable for propagation by offsets, but no experience is documented. Searches of the French forum Fous de palmiers and the Italian forum Tropicamente found no report on this species, and the Jardin zoologique tropical at La Londe-les-Maures, in the south of France, has published no observation on it.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

No record of Cycas indica, or of its synonym Cycas swamyi, was found in BGCI PlantSearch, in the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (Florida), or in the inventory of cycads in British, American and Australian gardens compiled for this site (searches of 19 and 21 October 2026). 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 to obtain seed. No germination data specific to the species have been published. The offsets it produces at its base might allow vegetative propagation, as in other cycads, but no experience is documented for this species. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4; ask for seed from cultivated plants.

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 indica. It is a tropical plant of southern India, and nothing allows us to say that it tolerates frost.

Mediterranean experience

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

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold reading or dated growing report was found, either on forums or from botanic gardens. No USDA zone can be given. In the UK and in most of the United States and Australia outside the tropics, keep it frost-free under glass.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity analysis specific to Cycas indica 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

No use specific to this species is documented in the sources consulted. Elsewhere in India other cycads are exploited locally: in Tamil Nadu, Cycas nathorstii has suffered heavily from the cutting of trunks for local medicine (Lindström and Hill 2007).

Frequently asked questions

What does indica mean?

“Of India”: the name recalls that the species is endemic to that country, and more precisely to Hassan district, in Karnataka.

Are Cycas swamyi and Cycas indica the same plant?

Yes. Cycas swamyi, described in 2008, refers to the same plant as Cycas indica, published a year earlier; it is therefore a synonym.

Is it a variety of Cycas circinalis?

No. The name Cycas circinalis var. swamyi circulated in India, but it was never validly published; the species differs in its almost spineless megasporophylls and its suckering habit.

Where does it grow?

Only in Hassan district, in Karnataka, on flat sandstone or quartzite ground, in extensive colonies.

Is it endangered?

Yes. The IUCN lists it as Endangered, because of its very small range and the decline of its habitat.

Is it hardy?

Almost certainly not. No cold data exist; it is a tropical plant.

Is it poisonous?

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

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Lindström, A.J. & Hill, K.D. (2007). The genus Cycas (Cycadaceae) in India. Telopea 11(4): 463–488. doi:10.7751/telopea20075745 [Original description (pp. 481–483); full text consulted.]
  • Singh, R. & Radha, P. (2008). A new species of Cycas (Cycadaceae) from Karnataka, India. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 158(3): 430–435. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2008.00924.x [Description of Cycas swamyi, a synonym; reference checked on Crossref, text not consulted.]
  • Lindström, A. (2023). Cycas indica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2023-1: e.T178879A1543818. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T178879A1543818.en [Current assessment (EN); reference checked on Crossref, category relayed by GBIF; Red List page not consulted (access blocked).]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.550.1.1 [Source of the 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.]