Trunk to 3(-8) m × 45(-95) cm, base and sometimes distal part with numerous adventitious lateral branches or bulbils, apex tomentose; bark gray-black, scaly. Leaves 40-100 or more, 1-pinnate, 0.7-1.4(-1.8) m × 20-25(-28) cm; petiole subtetragonal in cross section, 10-20 cm, with 6-18 spines along each side; leaf blade oblong-or elliptic-lanceolate, strongly "V"-shaped in cross section, recurved, brown tomentose when young; leaflets in 60-150 pairs, horizontally inserted at ca. 45° above rachis, not glaucous when mature, straight to subfalcate, 10-20 cm × 4-7 mm, leathery, sparsely pubescent abaxially, base decurrent, margin strongly recurved, apex acuminate, pungent. Cataphylls triangular, 4-5 × 1.5-2.3 cm, densely brown tomentose, apex acuminate. Pollen cones pale yellow, ovoid-cylindric, 30-60 × 8-15 cm; microsporophylls narrowly cuneate, 3.5-6 × 1.7-2.5 cm, apex rounded-truncate, cuspidate. Megasporophylls yellow to pale brown, 14-22 cm, densely tomentose; stalk 7-12 cm; sterile blade ovate to narrowly so, 6-11 × 4-7 cm, deeply laciniate, with 21-35 lobes 1-3 cm; ovules 2 or 3 on each side of stalk, densely pale brown tomentose. Seeds 2(-5), orange to red, obovoid or ellipsoid, somewhat compressed, (3-)4-5 × 2.5-3.5 cm, sparsely hairy; sclerotesta not grooved on sides. Pollination May-Jul, seed maturity Sep-Oct.
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A palm-like plant. It is evergreen. There can be a single trunk, several trunks or a branched trunk. The stems are 0.3-1.5 m tall. The fronds are stiff. The leaflets are 12-16 cm long by 0.4-0.7 cm wide. Male and female plants are separate. The seeds or nuts are large and orange nuts. The nuts grow in a cluster atop the stems of the plant.
Found mainly on the sea shore in S. Japan. Thickets on hillsides on islands, sparse forests on mainland at elevations of 100-500 metres in E. China. Primarily on steep to precipitous stony sites, but previously on flatter land now cleared.
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Found mainly on the sea shore in S. Japan. Thickets on hillsides on islands, sparse forests on mainland at elevations of 100-500 metres in E. China. Primarily on steep to precipitous stony sites, but previously on flatter land now cleared.
A tropical plant. It is very hardy. It can resist frost. It suits hardiness zones 9-12. Coffs Harbour. In XTBG Yunnan.
The trunk is chopped in small sections and dried and leached. It is fermented. The seeds are crushed, washed, cooked and eaten. They are also dried and ground into a powder then mixed with rice and fermented into a miso. The root tubers contain starch. CAUTION: A toxic glucoside, cycasin, has been isolated from the seed kernels. This is toxic and causes cancer.
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