Do you ever wonder what it would have been like to live with the Dinosaurs? (my 3 year old considers this often).

With the help of Jurassic Plants Nursery you can take some inspiration for a Jurassic garden and plant some Cycads.  They are a fascinating bunch:

“Cycads are commonly mistaken for ferns, palms or bamboo but they are actually conifers, bearing conspicuous naked cones.  Comprising only 11 genera (Bowenia, Ceratozamia, Chigua, Cycas, Dioon, Encephalartos, Lepidozamia, Macrozamia, Microcycas, Stangeria and Zamia) and approximately 300 species, they are the rarest plants on Earth.  Cycads display a remarkable diversity.  Leaf size ranges from 8 inches in the diminutive Zamia pygmaea, to 23 feet in the gigantic Encephalartos laurentianus.  Leaflet colour varies from yellow-green, lime green, dark green, purple-green, to silver and even blue.  There are cycads with  arborescent (tree-like) trunks, and cycads with subterranean trunks.  Longevity and growth rate also varies by species; Zamias can mature and reach coning age in only three to five years, while other, larger species such as the Dioons can take decades to cone and may live to be 1,000 years old.”

Cycads were a large part of the flora in the Jurassic period.   While, along with the dinosaurs, many species disappeared, some still exist.   Now they are referred to as living fossils, because they have remained virtually unchanged, and give us a glimpse into a long-distant past.

Zamia furfuracea image by tanetahi

My Favorite of the bunch are plants often referred to as ZZ’s – They are beautifully glaucus, dark green, impossible to kill and perfect indoors or as a central piece of an outdoor seasonal container. Do you have a favorite Jurassic Plant? Have you grown any cycads?