Cycas campestris

Cycas campestris is a cycad of the grassy plains and eucalypt savannas of south-eastern Papua New Guinea, known from Central and Gulf provinces, around Port Moresby. A species of the genus Cycas, it was described in 1994 by K. D. Hill in his revision of the Cycas media group in New Guinea. Its name, from the Latin campestris, “of the plains”, recalls that it grows in open country. It remains poorly known, its limits have been disputed, and the IUCN lists it as Near Threatened. As the original description could not be consulted, this page relies largely on herbarium labels.

Key facts about Cycas campestris

  • Accepted name: Cycas campestris K.D.Hill (1994), according to The World List of Cycads; POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: no synonym; part of the material cited by Hill in 1994 was referred to Cycas schumanniana by de Laubenfels and Adema (1998)
  • Family: Cycadaceae
  • Common names: none in English; herbarium labels record the local names “Atolo” (Kanosia, 1935) and “Wakoro” (Matapaili language, 1962)
  • Natural range: Papua New Guinea, Central and Gulf provinces; type locality at the Lea Lea lakes, near Port Moresby
  • IUCN status: Near Threatened (NT, criterion B1b(iii,v)), assessment by J. D. Bösenberg (2022), NT according to GBIF
  • CITES: Appendix II (listing of the whole family); Annex B in the European Union
  • Documented hardiness: no data; a lowland tropical species (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: open eucalypt savanna, grassland and grassy hillsides, from near sea level to about 400 m, according to herbarium labels; soil not documented
  • Habit and adult size: usually unbranched trunk, generally 1 to 2.5 m, up to about 5 m and 30 cm across in dense savanna; leaves about 0.9 to 1.4 m long, according to herbarium labels
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Montgomery Botanical Center (one accession of 2016) and Cairns Botanic Gardens
  • Toxicity: not studied for the species; all parts of Cycas are poisonous (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Cycas campestris

The original description (Hill 1994) could not be consulted, the publisher’s site being closed to automated access; the characters by which Hill separates it from its neighbours are therefore not given here. The labels of the type collection and of older specimens now filed under this name, as published through GBIF, describe the plant as follows:

  • Trunk: erect, usually unbranched; “generally not more than 1.5 m” in open savanna but up to about 5 m high and 30 cm across in dense eucalypt savanna near Port Moresby (1955); about 2.4 m (8 ft) at Port Moresby (1925) and about 2.5 m with a 20 cm stem on the Aroa River (1962); a 1977 collection describes a shrub about 1 m tall.
  • Leaves: about 0.9 to 1.2 m (3 to 4 ft) long at Port Moresby, up to about 1.4 m (4 ft 6 in) on Yule Island; around 30 in the crown of a 2 m female plant (1962); dark green, glossy above and paler beneath; new leaves covered with rusty hairs that rub off easily (type collection); petiole pale brown, rusty at the base.
  • Male cones: about 30 cm long, rounded at the top and tapered at the base (type collection); pale brown outside and cream inside, or light yellowish brown.
  • Megasporophylls (the fertile leaves of female plants): pale brown and downy; usually held beneath the leaves, but a few plants carry them standing above the leaves with full-grown seeds (1955).
  • Seeds: green to olive-green, sometimes yellowish at the tip.

The figures circulating online (leaves of 80 to 170 cm with 120 to 230 leaflets, male cones of 13 to 17 cm) are attributed to Ken Hill’s Cycad Pages, now offline; they could not be checked against his text, and the type collection’s male cone of about 30 cm does not match them. De Laubenfels and Adema (1998) describe something different again: a forest tree 8 m tall with leaves of 180 to 250 cm and red seeds, based on the type specimen alone (see Taxonomy).

Hybrids

No natural or garden hybrid is documented in the sources consulted.

Possible confusion

In New Guinea, Cycas campestris belongs to the same group as Cycas papuana and Cycas schumanniana, two species that Hill reinstated in the same 1994 paper. The characters that separate them could not be read in the original text. De Laubenfels and Adema (1998) state that Cycas schumanniana has much narrower leaflets and shorter teeth at the tip of the megasporophylls. The group is related to Cycas media, the large cycad of eastern Australia.

Taxonomy

Cycas campestris is accepted by The World List of Cycads; POWO could not be consulted. K. D. Hill described it in 1994 in “The Cycas media group (Cycadaceae) in New Guinea”, Australian Systematic Botany 7(6): 527–541 (description on pages 538–540). According to the abstract, Hill recognised three species in New Guinea: Cycas campestris, new, and Cycas papuana and Cycas schumanniana, reinstated after having been sunk into synonymy; he also described series Armstrongianosae and chose a type for section Endemicae. The type of Cycas campestris was collected on 18 September 1990 on a hillside at the Lea Lea lakes, on the Laloki River (Central Province), by S. W. L. Jacobs and B. J. Conn (no. 5950); the holotype, a female plant, is in Sydney (NSW).

De Laubenfels and Adema (1998) kept the name, but with a quite different definition: in their view only the type specimen belongs to the species, which they describe as a lowland forest tree widespread across New Guinea, while the other collections cited by Hill belong to Cycas schumanniana. The World List of Cycads, which cites their paper as a partial synonymy, follows Hill’s definition and restricts the species to Central and Gulf provinces. This disagreement explains why the published descriptions do not match; no more recent study settling the question has been found.

Etymology and history

The epithet comes from the Latin campestris, “of the plains, of the fields”, referring to the species’ occurrence in open, grassy country (Haynes 2022, taken up by The World List of Cycads).

The plants of the Port Moresby savannas were collected long before they were named: herbarium specimens now filed under Cycas campestris go back to 1918, when a collector noted that it was “very common on hills” around Port Moresby, and to 1925, when another described it as “common on any savanna”.

Common names

No English common name is attested. Two herbarium labels record local names: “Atolo”, noted at Kanosia in 1935 without naming the language, and “Wakoro”, in the Matapaili language, noted on the Aroa River in 1962. No other vernacular name could be verified.

In the wild

Cycas campestris is endemic to south-eastern Papua New Guinea: The World List of Cycads records it from Central and Gulf provinces, and the type locality is at the Lea Lea lakes, in the Port Moresby area. Herbarium labels describe open eucalypt savanna, savanna grassland and grassy hills: eucalypt savanna on a slight slope on the Rigo road (1969), open savanna grassland on the Aroa River (1962), tall open eucalypt woodland savanna at Kupiano (1977), and open savanna at Kanosia (1935). The recorded altitudes range from about 5 m to 100 m around Port Moresby, and 400 m at Rouna Falls (1940). Secondary sources add that these grasslands are often burnt; no primary source consulted says so.

The pollinator and seed dispersers are not documented.

Conservation status and regulation

Cycas campestris is listed as Near Threatened (NT, criterion B1b(iii,v)) in the assessment by J. D. Bösenberg (2022) cited by The World List of Cycads; a corrected version of that assessment was issued in 2023, and the IUCN data relayed by GBIF give the NT category (consulted on 21 October 2026). An earlier assessment by K. D. Hill (2010) also exists. The criterion reflects a limited range, with a decline in habitat quality and in the number of mature plants; the detail of the threats could not be checked, as the Red List could not be consulted.

Like every species of the family Cycadaceae, Cycas campestris is listed in CITES Appendix II. Species+, the official CITES and EU database, shows this listing at family level, with annotation #4 (version in force since 5 March 2026): seeds, pollen and seedlings or tissue cultures obtained in vitro in sterile containers are exempt, but live plants remain subject to permits. 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. Check the rules in force before any purchase, import or sale, and ask for proof that the plant is cultivated. This information does not replace the official texts.

Growing Cycas campestris

In short: no published growing data have been found, and the species appears on none of the forums consulted. What follows is deduced from its habitat.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Its native habitat, lowland tropical savanna, suggests a plant for frost-free tropical gardens, in full sun and well-drained soil. It is grown at Montgomery Botanical Center in South Florida, whose cycad collection is planted outdoors, and declared by Cairns Botanic Gardens in tropical Queensland; neither garden has published observations on it.

Container cultivation

In the United Kingdom and other temperate regions, it would be a plant for a heated glasshouse or conservatory, in full sun and a free-draining substrate. No account of pot culture has been found, and the Jardin zoologique tropical at La Londe-les-Maures, in the south of France, has published nothing on this species.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: two botanic garden records.

  • United States: the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists one accession, whose number shows that it entered the collection in 2016; the garden also declares it in BGCI PlantSearch (consulted in October 2026).
  • Australia: Cairns Botanic Gardens declares it in BGCI PlantSearch; it is absent from the catalogues of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Mount Annan and the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
  • United Kingdom: no garden declares it.

No first-hand report from a private grower could be read; PalmTalk and Dave’s Garden could not be consulted.

Propagation

Propagation is by seed, as for other Cycas; a male and a female plant are needed. No data specific to the species have been found.

Pests and diseases

No data specific to the species have been found. Like all Cycas, it is exposed to the Asian cycad scale, Aulacaspis yasumatsui, and to root rot in waterlogged substrate.

Cold hardiness

No cold-tolerance value has been published, and no outdoor growing report has been found.

European experience

No growing report has been found in Europe; on the French forum Fous de palmiers and the Italian forum Tropicamente, the name campestris only brings up the palm Trithrinax campestris. No temperature tolerated is documented: grow it in a pot, frost-free.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold reading or growing report has been found. As a lowland tropical species, it should be treated as frost-tender; no USDA zone can be given without a documented trial.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity data specific to Cycas campestris have been found, but the risk is 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 as poisonous to dogs, cats and horses, with vomiting, sometimes bloody diarrhoea, jaundice and liver damage that can be fatal; NC State Extension notes that cycasin is present in all parts of the plant.

Wear gloves to handle the seeds and their fleshy coat, pick up any that fall, 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

A herbarium label of 1962, from the Aroa River, notes that local people said the fleshy layer of the seed was eaten after boiling. This is a single collector’s note; no other source consulted documents the use, and it must never be imitated, as Cycas seeds contain dangerous toxins.

Frequently asked questions

What does campestris mean?

The Latin word means “of the plains”: it recalls that the species grows in open, grassy country.

Where does Cycas campestris grow?

In Papua New Guinea, in Central and Gulf provinces, around Port Moresby, in eucalypt savanna and on grassy hillsides.

Why do its descriptions not match?

Because two revisions have defined it differently. Hill (1994) applies the name to the cycads of the south-eastern grassy plains; de Laubenfels and Adema (1998) restrict it to the type specimen alone, which they describe as a large forest tree.

How tall does it grow?

Herbarium labels mostly record plants of 1 to 2.5 m, and up to about 5 m in dense savanna near Port Moresby.

Is it endangered?

Moderately. The IUCN lists it as Near Threatened (2022 assessment).

Can it be grown outdoors in the UK?

No. There are no data, and it is a lowland tropical species; grow it frost-free under glass.

Is it poisonous?

Yes, very probably. It has not been studied, but all parts of Cycas are poisonous, especially the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Hill, K.D. (1994). The Cycas media group (Cycadaceae) in New Guinea. Australian Systematic Botany 7(6): 527–541. doi:10.1071/SB9940527 [Original description, pages 538–540; abstract read through Crossref, full text not consulted.]
  • de Laubenfels, D.J. & Adema, F. (1998). A taxonomic revision of the genera Cycas and Epicycas gen. nov. (Cycadaceae). Blumea 43(2): 351–400. [Concept restricted to the type, pages 380–381, and partial synonymy with Cycas schumanniana, page 375; broad species concept; full text consulted.]
  • Hill, K.D. (2010). Cycas campestris. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T42072A10618293. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T42072A10618293.en [Earlier assessment; reference checked on Crossref, category not checked.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Cycas campestris. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T42072A67338321. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T42072A67338321.en [Current assessment; corrected version e.T42072A243415225 issued in 2023; references checked on Crossref, NT category relayed by GBIF; 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 [Etymology of the epithet; cited by The World List of Cycads, text not 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: accepted name, original publication, type, range, synonyms, IUCN status; consulted directly.]