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Cycas balansae
Also called Balansa's Sago
Cycas balansae is a subtropical cycad from southern China and northern Vietnam, grown mainly as a pot plant in its native range and rarely seen elsewhere. It needs warm, humid, shaded to part-shaded conditions and good drainage.
Cycas balansae is a species of cycad in the genus Cycas, native to southwestern China (southeast Guangxi) and adjacent northern Vietnam (near Hanoi), where it occurs in dense mountain rainforests.
It has a subterranean, unbranched stem 12–20 cm in diameter, bearing 4-9 leaves, each leaf 1.2-2.6 m long, pinnate with 90-160 leaflets, and armed with spines along the petiole. The leaflets are papery in texture, and angled forward at 80 degrees.
It is cultivated as a pot plant in its native range, but is not seen with any frequency outside of this area.
It is named after the French botanist Benedict Balansa.
In northeastern Vietnam, Cycas balansae is found in Lang Son, Vinh Phuc, Thai Nguyen, and Quang Ninh provinces. In Guangxi, China, it is found in the Shiwan Dashan (mountains). In Yunnan, China, it is found in Jingping, Maguan, and Pingbian counties.
Crozier cycas · Cycad · Sago palm · Cycad
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cycas balansae by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
