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 a majority of the population there were destroyed by the tsunami of December 2004.Christenhusz, M. J. M., J. L. Reveal, A. K. Farjon, M. F. Gardner, R. R. Mill & M. W. Chase. 2011. A new classification and linear sequence of extant gymnosperms. Phytotaxa 19: 55–70. A few trees are cited in Hanguranketha town Adikarigama area.
Cycas zeylanica is an unbranched shrub up to tall. Leaves are up to long, green, glossy, pinnately compound with up to 100 leaflets. Pollen-producing cones fusiform (tapering at both ends), microsporophylls (male, pollen-producing) up to long. Megasporophylls (female, ovule-producing) up to long, each with 2-5 ovules. Seeds flattened to ovoid, orange-brown.Lindstrom, AJ, & KD Hill. 2002. Notes on the species of Cycas (Cycadaceae from Sri Lanka and the islands of the Andaman Sea. Novon 12:237-240.Schuster, Julius. 1932. Das Pflanzenreich 99: 75, pl. 10C–D, llK–M.
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