The plant world includes a vast array of organisms from the tiny one-celled organisms to the Giant Sequoias. It also includes an historic array of plants from the extinct plants we know only from fossil records to the new varieties developing right along through natural selection and hybridizing.

We think we are pretty smart about the fossilized prints of plants smugly knowing that they lived pre-historically and feeling very sure that they are no longer among us. Every so often, however, we find plants that existed in the time of the dinosaurs and continue to live today. Some we are aware of but every so often, someone somewhere discovers plants, like the gingko tree, that we were very sure are all gone.

Cycads are among the latter. Fossilized imprints of these plants left the impression among some that they were among the extinct plants of the world. However, by the ninth century, European explorers found varieties of these plants that survived through the millennia. They grow naturally in tropical and subtropical climates in tropical parts of Africa, Central America and Florida, the southern tips of Asia and parts of Australia. Native peoples of these areas in the ninth century were very familiar with the plants soaking the nuts to remove toxins and eating them and making flour from them.

Fortunately for the rest of us, cycads also grow well in tropical greenhouses, in conservatories, in colder climates and we can enjoy these plants there. They are found generally in the tropical sections along with the palms and ferns. Perhaps that is why they are often mistaken for palms or ferns.

However, they are neither ferns nor palms. They are more closely related to conifers and belong to the division Cycadophyta.

These plants are sometimes planted in less tropical climates as they can survive to 15 degrees Fahrenheit if other conditions are right. From the center of thick trunks, they send up airy, feathery leaves about two to three feet long. Young ones are two to three feet tall and resemble ferns, but they can grow very slowly to a height of 10 feet at which point they look more like palms.

They are not extremely prevalent today but were very common in the Jurassic period. Nevertheless, there are 305 described species and others are being discovered and not yet described.

They are not angiosperms which form seeds from flowers and protect those seeds to maturity inside fruit. They are gymnosperms — they form their seed in large cones. Unlike conifers which form both male and female cones on the same plant, cycads are either male or female and the pollen must make its way from one plant or the other. It is not the most efficient method of reproduction because even if the pollen blown from the male cones reaches the female cones, conditions must be just right for it to fertilize the female cones. Conditions must also be just right for the seed to mature and to grow after it drops.

Fortunately for the species’, cycads also produce offsets that stay attached to the parent plant but can form more plants. These suckers are also called pups and can be separated manually from the parent and rooted.

Cloning, long used in the plant world, will also produce plants. Cycads can be cut into pieces and rooted to make new plants. They are a bit tricky to grow as houseplants but make dramatic additions to tropical greenhouse displays with their large, beautiful leaves. They grow in these artificial climates in soilless mixes or in peat or sphagnum moss.

The Sago Palm is the hardiest of the cycads and is sometimes grown in containers or as bonsai plants to create a tropical look. If you are looking for a plant adventure by growing cycads as houseplants, this is the most resilient variety. Keep in mind that you must provide the moisture and humidity that the plants are used to. As with all plants, do not overwater but do put pebble trays under them or plant them in groups to get the humidity they require.

Otherwise watch for cycads in tropical displays in greenhouses. They will probably be mixed among the ferns. They are most easily recognized by the fairly massive trunks and possibly the formation of a single, large cone that becomes very heavy as it matures rather than the spores that form on the back of fern fronds.