I was recently asked what my favourite plant species is. After some soul searching, I arrived at the the Pacific cycad, Cycas seemannii (Fig. 1), found in Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. But why, you ask? Cycads are an ancient lineage, believed to have evolved some 300 million years. Their abundance and diversity peaked in the Jurassic and Cretaceous time period – in fact those times are sometimes referred to as ‘The Age of Cycads and Dinosaurs’.
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