ornamental palm and cycad

1. Ornamental palms & cycad:
 Palms are a special group of plants used extensively in landscape gardening, due to their
beautiful trunk, leaf colour, shapes, plant structure and growth habits. Their roots, trunks
(stems),fronds (leaves),flowers and fruits are different and distinct in appearance and structure
from others of the plant kingdom.
Family : arecaceae/palmae
 Based on the trunk and its different manifestation, palms can be divided in to four groups viz.,
 The leaves of the palms called ‘fronds’ vary in form. They may be grouped into ‘fan leaved
type’ and ‘pinnate leaved type’ palms.
 Feather leaved palm: Areca triandra, Caryota urens, Chamodera elegans
 Fan leaved palm: Livingstonia rotundifolia
Cycad:
 These are ancient group of cone producing plants made up of three families (Cycadeceae,
Stangeriaceae and Zamiaceae). There are approximately 300 recognized species of cycad.
 Cycads are often referred to as ‘living fossils’ because they have existed for over 200 milion
years. They are sometimes confused with tree ferns or palms in overall appearance,but cycads
differ greatly in all aspects.
 Cycads have no flowers or fruits, and male and female reproductive parts occur on separate
plants (i.e dioecious), plants reproduced by seeds produced in cones on female plants.
1. Solitary palms single erect trunk (eg. Cocos, Phoenix, Elaseis)
2. Clumping plams multiple trunks arising from at or just below the ground level (eg. Areca lustescens,
Raphis)
3.Branching plams branching can occur above ground (eg. Hyphaene indica) or below ground (eg. Nipa
fruticans)
4. Trunkless palm have very much reduced trunk called acaulescent (eg. Phoenix acaulis)