PACSOA - Cycas sp. 'Wilailak'

Cycads

Cycas sp. 'Wilailak'

Distribution & Habitat:
Only found on one lime-stone mountain near the border of Laos, where the night-time temperatures in the winter get down to -4 Celcius, and the plants can be covered with snow and ice.
Description:
A tall cycad to between 8-10m high, with the stem being almost white, and sometimes getting 2 or 3 heads per plant.
Leaves are 112 cm. long; petiole 28 cm; spines 5-6 in pairs.
Leaflets: 67 in pairs; length 20 cm., width 12 mm.
Seeds 3.7-5.1 cm. long and 3.9-4.6 cm. width.
General:
A very newly discovered species, so not much is known about it at the moment.
Culture:
This sounds like a very cold tolerant cycad, which would like limestone based soils.

Figure 1. C. sp. 'Wilailak'

Figure 2. C. sp. 'Wilailak' in habitat.

Figure 3. C. sp. 'Wilailak' leaf detail.
Figure 4. C. sp. 'Wilailak' showing the tall, white stems.

Contributed by: Ruud Meeldijk, Golden Lotus (Text and Figure 1,2,3&4)

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