Cycad

Cycads are seed plants belonging to the division Cycadophyta, with a stout, woody, cylindrical trunk topped by a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen, usually feather-shaped leaves. The species are dioecious, meaning individual plants are either male or female, and they vary from a few centimeters to several meters in trunk height, typically growing slowly and living for a long time. Living cycads are found across much of the subtropical and tropical world, with a few in temperate regions such as Australia, and reach their greatest diversity in the Americas, though they also occur in China, South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands and Africa.