Macrozamia Cardialensis

I purchased a cycad at the Arboretum Cactus show, Macrozamia Cardialensis. Anybody ever hear of it and if so what. I haven't found it in any of my books.

Most likely you mean Macrozamia cardiacensis (cardialensis doesn't exist). It's an Australian native found naturally in the south east of Queensland, in a rainforest area near Mount Walsh. Your climate might be a bit on the cold side for it so you might want to protect it a little when it gets cold. It would have a much higher rainfall than your area, and most of the year round. It's granite country there, but I don't know which micro-ecosystem it occupies. Keeping all that in mind, I'd say it shouldn't be difficult for you to grow it successfully.

Your right. Looked at the tag on it again. It does get to 32 degrees here and sometimes lower. So I'll bring it inside or put it on my balcony. Thanks.

not familiar with that species, actually, but all or almost all other Macrozamia species are at no risk of cold damage in Los Angeles area. My main problem with them is they are incredibly slow, particularly if grown in the ground (do much better in pots... opposite of almost all other cycads) up to a point.

What cycads have grown quickly for you. It seems cycas Thourasii has for me. Still collecting and any info would be appreciated.

quickly? None really (not sure what your definitely of quickly is). The larger the cycad, the faster it grows normally. Can't really say any of mine are growing quickly.. .guess the fastest is Cycas panziuhensis, which puts out about 3 flushes a year... all others maybe one at the most. Most small Macrozamias never seem to grow at all. Macrozamia johnsonii is doing pretty well, though I just dug it up and potted it and it's now pretty unhappy.

'Cycads ......... quick?' Are you talking Geological Time or Human Time, LOL. Although, I have a still unidentified one at home that drops all its fronds through the dry season. During this time it produces a large bulbous mass of cataphylls, and at the start of the wet season new fronds grow out of this. So the trunk grows some 75 to 80 millimetres per year in bursts.

I have started planting mine on a slope I have. Think I'll put barrel cactus and other plants that will at lest stick any culprit that tries to take them. My son works at Cactus Center so I'm sure he can give me ideas on how to keep people from stealing them. When I figure out how to put pictures on the internet I'll show the site.

few if any would try to steal a Macrozamia- most would not recognize them as cycads, first of all, and if they did, it is unlikely any would be interested in going through the effort of taking them unless they were incredibly old, large and standing out (like in a nice pot). Never heard of one of these being stolen in southern California. As for the more obvious species (most Encephalartos), best way to keep them from being taken is to make them difficult to take- plant them behind a row of spiny things, put in back yard with a large dog, pile huge rocks around them making digging nearly impossible, etc.