Abstract:Cycas szechuanensis was described in 1975, based on the female specimen collected by Xiong Jihua at Fuhu Temple, Mt. Emei. The species was believed to be endemic to Sichuan province and was extinct in the wild.
According to authors, investigation there were many individuals of Cycas szechuanensis under cultivation in Sichuan Province, such as Chongqing, Leshan, Chengdu etc. areas. However, these plants were all female, their trunks were short, less than 1 m high and the diameters of stems were usually less than 30 cm at the base. Their ages were estimated less than 100 years old obviously. The authors found that there were about 13 cultivated individuals at the type locality Mt. Emei, 11 of them were larger than 30 cm in diameter at the base. Their ages seemed to be more than 100 years ,some of them even more than 200 or 300 years old. They were all female and cultivated resource.
Where did these Cycas szechuanensis come from? Where was their original distribution? According to our textual research, the following ideas may be concluded:
1. The individuals of Cycas szechuanensis cultivated over Sichuan Province were most probably directly or indirectly from those cultivated at Mt.. Emei propagated by suckers. So they were homologous genetically.
2. The Cycas szechuanensis cultivated at Mt. Emei was collected by a certain monk in Qing Dynasty from one or several suckers of female plants in China area of the Dome southern.
3. The original distribution of Cycas szechuanensis should be in the southern area of China other than Sichuan Province. A powerful evidence was that a female sichuanese cycad cultivated in our garden bore seventeen seeds in 1993. The male cycad pollinated to the female cycad was introduced from a province of southern China, and was very similar to the Sichuanese cycad in habit and leaf morphology.