Cycas revoluta the Sago
Palm is a great small palm look alike. They Cycas genus is actually
closely related to the pines. They have cones and large seeds that
resemble pine nuts. The starch from the Sago Palms trunk and seeds
were used throughout the Islands off Asia as a food source. Cycas
revoluta is thought to yield imortality to Buddhists that eat it.
The new Sago Palm leaves were used to make a tea. Care should
be taken to find the proper preparation methods as a number of the cycads
produce toxins that must be leached before they can be consumed.
This
Cycas revoluta is in an area that drops into the low teens each Winter.
At this temperature Cycas revoluta will lose all of the leaves. I
cut the old Sago Palm leaves off as the new ones appear. The new ones like
these will come out in late April and May in our area. Cycas
revoluta will produce new pups around the base as it grows. Cycas
revoluta was often planted around temples and is a good specimen to use
for a bonsai look as the plants grow very slowly. There is not much
that can be done to shape Cycas revoluta plants except to trim off the
dead foliage.
High resolution images
of Cycas revoluta are available. We have a collection of
Infra-Red images of the plants and leaves as well.
