Cycad seedlings initially form a stout fleshy taproot that persists in subterranean forms for many years but is augmented by secondary roots which also are quite thick and fleshy. The taproots, larger secondary roots, and, in some cases, underground stems have contractile elements in the pith and cortex that draw the stem more deeply into the ground.

Branch roots are of two kinds: long-branching geotropic roots and short-branching apogeotropic roots, which are referred to as coralloid because of their irregular beady appearance. The coralloid roots contain symbiotic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which fix nitrogen and, in association with root tissues, produce such beneficial amino acids as asparagine and citrulline.

The taproot does not persist long in arborescent cycads but is replaced by large adventitious roots, which obscure the basic taproot system of the seedling. In all cycads, young roots are diarch with a parenchymatous cortex and an outer cover of epidermal scales. In this aspect they also resemble seed ferns. Older roots become triarch or tetrarch, eventually developing substantial amounts of wood and an outer covering of periderm.

Leaves

The leaves of cycads are for the most part once-pinnately compound; however, in the genus Bowenia, the leaves are bipinnate and quite fernlike. Stangeria also has fernlike leaves, and before cones were found to be associated with them the plant was described as a fern in the genus Lomaria. Stangeria leaves and those of the recently described Chigua are unique in possessing pinnately veined leaflets with midribs and side veins. Cycas pinnae also have midribs, but these lack side veins altogether. Pinnae of all other cycads have dichotomously branching, more or less parallel veins. The size of the cycad leaf is variable; Zamia pygmaea, the smallest cycad, has leaves about 20–30 cm long, while some species of Macrozamia, Lepidozamia, Ceratozamia, and Cycas have leaves three metres in length.

In cross section, the pinnae of most cycads are rather thick and sclerophyllous. The stomata are sunken and are of the type known as haplocheilic; that is, the guard cells arise directly from the mother cell, as contrasted with the syndetocheilic type, in which the guard cells are one division removed from the mother cell. The haplocheilic type is found in living conifers, pteridosperms, cycads, Ginkgo, and some others but not in Cycadeoidea.

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Sporophylls and strobili

Cycads are universally dioecious; that is, male and female reproductive structures are borne on different individual plants. Male plants produce pollen by leaf homologues called microsporophylls, and female plants produce ovules by leaf homologues known as megasporophylls. In all cycads, the microsporophylls are arranged spirally about a cone axis; in all cycads but Cycas, megasporophylls are similarly arranged. Megasporophylls of Cycas do not form a true cone but are arranged in two to three whorls at the stem apex. Later the stem resumes vegetative growth, and the megasporophylls then are interposed between whorls of foliar leaves and cataphylls; the usual arrangement is two to three whorls of leaves, then several whorls of cataphylls, followed by megasporophylls, but variations in this sequence are not unusual.

The megasporophyll of the Asian Cycas revoluta is considered to most typify the ancestral seed fern condition. Each megasporophyll consists of a stalk, a fertile portion bearing two to six ovules, and an expanded terminal blade having fringelike “pinnae.” An evolutionary series of plant forms probably led toward the biovulate peltate megasporophylls of such forms as Encephalartos, Ceratozamia, Microcycas, and Zamia. Microsporophylls similarly vary among cycads; those of Cycas are the more leaflike, those of Zamia less so. Microsporangia, which are found on the abaxial surface of microsporophylls, are usually numerous—several hundred in Cycas, several dozen in Zamia—and arranged in small clusters of two to five. They are the equivalent of sori of ferns and of pteridosperms. The cycad microsporangium resembles a clamshell, being somewhat flattened with an elongate suture.