PlantFiles: Fork-Leafed Cycad
Cycas longipetiolula

Listed as a synonym to C. multipinnata, micholitzii, and bifida across various reference texts, it was listed as a species in 1994. Confusion still abounds, and the scarcity of material maintained as longipetiolula makes things even more difficult.

Due to the various changes in name, the original material bred and distributed as longipetiolula has since been pollinated and / or used to pollinate all three of the previous 'synonyms,' resulting in a hybrid swarm, and effectively contaminting previously known 'true to type' individual gene pools of the three.

Regardless of the species issue, it is a protected species under CITES appendix II, strictly regulating wild-collected plants and seeds for international trade.

This is how this plant is described by Dingyue Wang in CYCADS IN CHINA. "Native to monsoonal forest along Yunnans Yuanjiang River valley, it has a highly distinctive appearance, sporting several tall, arching, bipinnate leaves to just over 4 m (14 ft.) long, supported by a short, mostly underground caudex. The leaflets have pretty, undulate margins and are held on short stalks or "petiolules". In cultivation, it appreciates a warm temperate or tropical climate with plenty of rainfall. It can sustain cool conditions but is not hardy to more than an occasional short freeze."