''Lepidozamia hopei'', commonly known as Hope's cycad or zamia palm, is a species of

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...

in the family

Zamiaceae The Zamiaceae are a family of cycads that are superficially palm or fern-like. They are divided into two subfamilies with eight genera and about 150 species in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Australia and North and South America. ...

, endemic to a small part of the Australian state of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. It grows as an understorey tree in rainforest, and is reputed to be the tallest known species of cycad.

Description

Hope's cycad is a tree reaching up to high and trunk diameter. It normally has a single trunk and crown, although forked trunks occur on occasions. The fronds may reach up to long with as many as 200 leaflets each. The leaflets are dark green, fairly stiff, and up to wide and long. The cones are quite large – male cones measure up to tall and diameter and female cones are up to tall and diameter. The seeds when mature measure about long by wide and are sheathed in a bright red

sarcotesta The sarcotesta is a fleshy seedcoat, a type of testa. Examples of seeds with a sarcotesta are pomegranate, ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants, assigned to the gymnosperms. The scientific name is also used as the Eng ...

. It is reputed to be the tallest known species of cycad and it towers over other understorey vegetation, but rarely reaches the

forest canopy In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant cropping or crop, formed by the collection of individual plant crowns. In forest ecology, the canopy is the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and includ ...

Taxonomy

This plant was first described in 1865, as ''Catakidozamia hopei'', by Scottish-Australian botanist

Walter Hill Walter Hill (born January 10, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer known for his action films and revival of the Western (genre), Western genre. He has directed such films as ''The Driver'', ''The Warriors (film), The ...

who published the description in ''The Gardeners' chronicle and agricultural gazette''. It was later transferred to the genus ''Lepidozamia'' by German botanist

Eduard August von Regel Eduard Model Accessories is a Czech manufacturer of plastic models and finescale model accessories. History Formed in 1989 in the city of Most, Eduard began in a rented cellar as a manufacturer of photoetched brass model components. Fol ...

, who published the new name in 1876.

Distribution and habitat

''Lepidozamia hopei'' is found in a small part of northeast Queensland, from the area around the

Bloomfield River The Bloomfield River is a river in the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland, Australia, noted for its Bloomfield River cod fish species, found only in the river. Course and features The river rises in the Great Dividing Range below Zig Zag and ...

in the north, to the lowlands just south of Tully. It inhabits rainforest and neighbouring forests at altitudes from near sea level to about .

Conservation

This species has been assessed to be of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) and as 'Special Least Concern' (SL) by the Queensland Government under its

Nature Conservation Act The ''Nature Conservation Act 1992'' is an act of the Parliament of Queensland, Australia, that, together with subordinate legislation, provides for the legislative protection of Queensland's threatened biota. As originally published, it prov ...

. The status SL is unique to Queensland, and lies between 'Least Concern' and 'Near Threatened'.

Ecology

The seeds are eaten by

cassowaries Cassowaries (; Biak language, Biak: ''man suar'' ; ; Papuan_languages, Papuan: ''kasu weri'' ) are flightless birds of the genus ''Casuarius'', in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites, flightless birds without a keel (bird a ...

and the sarcotesta that covers them are eaten by native rodents.

Gallery

References

External links

View a map
of historical sightings of this species at the

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgama ...

View observations
of this species on

iNaturalist iNaturalist is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. iNaturalist may be accessed via its web ...

View images
of this species on Flickriver {{Taxonbar, from=Q592223 hopei Endemic flora of Queensland Least concern biota of Queensland Taxa named by Walter Hill Plants described in 1865 Cycadophyta of Australia Taxonomy articles created by Polbot