Cycas simplicipinna Seedlings

This plant has a largely subterranean trunk with a crown of large - erect leaves with broad and well-spaced bright green leaflets. It is quite distinct - in this way - from all other Thai cycads. Similar plants to C. simplicipinna include the strikingly distinctive C. micholitzii and C. multipinnata of southern China and Vietnam. C. simplicipinna has been described as an “outlier” of this predominantly Chinese and Vietnamese group of species. C. simplicipinna is widely distributed in the mountains in the north of Thailand - above about 2,000 ft. in elevation - usually in wetter and sheltered sites in deep shade in tall closed evergreen forests. This species also occurs in northern Burma - Laos and Vietnam.