Sago Palm (Cycas revoluta)
April 16, 2008 — Vasant M. SalianSago Palm (Cycas revoluta), is a cycad native to southern Japan. Though often known by the common name of King Sago Palm, or just Sago Palm, it is not a palm at all, but a type of gymnosperm. Sago palms have become very popular landscape plants in modern, classy Indian gardens.
They have erect, sturdy trunks that are typically about one to two feet in diameter, sometimes wider and can grow into very old specimens with twenty feet of trunk. The leaves are a dark olive green and about three to four feet long when the plants are of a reproductive age. Sago palms are very slow growing plants. So, mostly one finds only young plants which have not grown a stem and look like a rosette of leaves coming from a stem near the ground. The name revoluta was given because of the revolute (to curl back) nature of the leaflets; the edges roll under the leaflet.
Taxonomy:
Kingdom : Plantae
Division : Cycadophyta
Class : Cycadopsida
Order : Cycadales
Family : Cycadaceae
Genus : Cycas
Species : Cycas revoluta
Pronunciation/Meaning:
- Cycas (SY-kas) - From the Greek kukas, an erroneous reading of koikas, a kind of palm tree.
- revoluta (re-vo-LOO-tuh) - Rolled back from margins or apex.
Common Names:
- Sago Palm, Japanese Sago Palm, King Sago Palm, Sago Cycas
Links:
Image Courtesy of Andrew (polandeze).
