My husband and daughter dig up the burned cycad plant in our front yard. The the left are the dead leaves I trimmed off the plant before we moved it.
When my son, now 31, was a seventh grader at Paul Revere Middle School, he brought home a “seedling” stuck in dirt in a cup. “Mom, this is a prehistoric plant, it is as old at dinosaurs.”
One of the parents at the school had a plant nursery, specializing in cycads. Mr. Honda, a science teacher, had invited the parent to speak to the class. Afterwards, the parent had given every student a plant to try and grow.
Cycads have been are described as ancient seed-bearing plants that appeared before the age of dinosaurs, during the Permian period, almost 280 million years ago. It seems that a cycad plant can live up to 2,000 years.
This is how the cycad looked after several years.
I put the plant by the kitchen sink, watered it occasionally, and over the next three years it grew.
When my son went out for the Palisades baseball team, that same parent gave seedling plants to the players, who promptly gave them to the parents. And so now, there were two cycads gracing the sink area.
The plants seemed to like the light and grew, eventually taking over counter space, so I transferred them to larger pots in the house. And then, they needed more space, so I planted them in the front yard.
These prehistoric plants, which are often confused with ferns, are truly adaptable. They can be water tolerant – perfect for Southern California, they like sun – and they need room to grow. They seemed to do well in the yard and were, simply, unique.
Once the cycad got too large for the house, I planted it in the yard.
The Palisades Fire burned the leaves off one, leaving a dark stump. The other had its leaves baked a dark brown.
Among all the things we lost in the fire, the killing of these plants, which I had grown since they were babies was sad and disheartening. My mom, a master gardener, looked up the species and said that some cycads in Australia had survived major fires. She assured me that “Your plants will probably make it.”
But, we signed up for the Army Corp of Engineers to clean our property. They take six inches of the soil, which means the plants would be destroyed.
Humoring me, my husband and daughter embarked on a ‘save the cycads’ rescue mission.
The roots, although not deep, had spread out. I later read that some think that the secret to cycads’ survival and long life is the coralloid root. The root has microbes living which contain a high diversity of bacterial species.
I found the biggest pots I could find, bought bags of soil, and with my husband’s and daughters’ help, they came out of the yard, rode in the back of the car and are now in Marina del Rey. The plants sit side by side on the balcony of the apartment.
Will they survive the fire and come back? I hope so. Cycads all over the world are in decline, with four species on the brink of extinction and seven species having fewer than 100 plants left in the wild.
There are five species that are considered extinct in the wild and 10 more are Critically Endangered (because of illegal trade). All 37 species of South African Encephalartos are protected by law and it is illegal to harvest, trade, sell, buy, import or export any wild cycads.
The oldest recorded specimen of Encephalartos in cultivation is found at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London and was collected in South Africa in 1772. There are reports of cycads growing in temples in Japan that are even older.
My cycad, which looked like this, outgrew the house and I planted it in the front yard.
By looking at photos, I believe one of my plants might be an encephalartos aemulans, a cycad native of Africa. The second might be a zamia Furfuracea, native to southeastern Veracruz (Mexico).
Horticulturists say that part of the secret of cycad’s longevity is that they grow very slowly – producing just a few leaves each year.
I hope my plants live and they can be planted as a centerpiece in our new yard. And even after I’m gone, the next people to live on Radcliffe need to understand they’re more than plants – they’re living history and with a little luck might be around for at least the next hundred years.
The cycads were transplanted to pots on a balcony.
what plants offer. look at all that you learned by just one/two plants. life is great and the plants just need to overcome the shock. give them say two years. no mention of your son