Cycas zeylanica, common name (in Sri Lanka) maha-madu is a plant apparently at present endemic to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It was formerly also present in Sri Lanka, but the last remnants of the populations there were destroyed by the tsunami of December 2004.[2][3]

Cycas zeylanica
A Cycas zeylanica in Lund Botanical Gardens
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
(unranked):	Gymnosperms
Division:	Cycadophyta
Class:	Cycadopsida
Order:	Cycadales
Family:	Cycadaceae
Genus:	Cycas
Species:	C. zeylanica
Binomial name
Cycas zeylanica (J.Schust.) A.Lindstr. & K.D.Hill
Synonyms[1]
Cycas rumphii subsp. zeylanica J.Schust.

Cycas zeylanica is an unbranched shrub up to 3 m tall. Leaves are up to 200 cm long, green, glossy, pinnately compound with up to 100 leaflets. Pollen-producing cones fusiform (tapering at both ends), microsporophylls (male, pollen-producing) up to 45 mm long. Megasporophylls (female, ovule-producing) up to 30 cm long, each with 2-5 ovules. Seeds flattened to ovoid, orange-brown.[4][5]

References