''Cycas badensis'' is a species of

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

in the genus ''

Cycas ''Cycas'' is a genus of plants belonging to a very ancient lineage, the Cycadophyta, which are not closely related to palms, ferns, trees or any other modern group of plants. They are evergreen perennials which achieved their maximum diversity in ...

'', native to Australia, in the extreme north of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, where it is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Badu Island Badu or Badu Island (; mwp, Badhu, ; also Mulgrave Island), is an island in the Torres Strait north of Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia. Badu Island is also a locality in the Torres Strait Island Region, and Wakaid is the only town, lo ...

in the

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...

. The stems grow up to 8 m tall. The leaves are numerous, 1-1.2 m long, pinnate, with 200-230 leaflets, the leaflets 11–22 cm long and 5-7.5 mm wide. The emerging new leaves are densely orange-brown tomentose, becoming bright green and moderately glossy on the upper side, lighter green on underside. The female

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

are open, very wooly and brown tomentose, with ovules per cone. Cones wide.

Sarcotesta The sarcotesta is a fleshy seedcoat, a type of testa. Examples of seeds with a sarcotesta are pomegranate and some cycad seeds. The sarcotesta of pomegranate seeds consists of epidermal cells derived from the integument In biology, an integu ...

orange-brown.

Habitat

This cycad prefers

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...

groves in the far northern region of Queensland in the tropical grasslands of Badu Island. Recently first described in 1996, it is found only in this remote island of Australia. Little is known of the plant, and it is not common in cultivation.

References

Cycad Pages: ''Cycas badensis''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5197917 badensis Flora of Queensland Cycadophyta of Australia Endemic flora of Australia Near threatened flora of Australia Near threatened biota of Queensland