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Cycas media; photograph (c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-23

Cycas media R.Br.

Queensland cycas; Cycad-palm; Nut-palm; Zamia-nut

Cycadaceae · Queensland

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Cycas media, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCycas media, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCycas media, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCycas media, photograph (c) Daniel Montesinos, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cycas media, photograph (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cycas media, photograph (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY) 64 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.8°C
Record low 10.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,611mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–43DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to October (December to April at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cycas media is a palm-like cone-bearing plant widespread in seasonally dry tropical sclerophyll woodlands close to the east coast of Queensland, with scattered occurrences also in northern Northern Territory and Western Australia, Australia. The dark green leathery, thick leaves are pinnately divided and grow in annual flushes from a massive apical bud. It is tolerant of bushfire and often re-foliates immediately following a dry season fire, before the beginning of the next rainy season. All plant parts are considered highly toxic. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cycas media", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Cycas

Cycas is a genus of cycad, and the only genus in the family Cycadaceae with all other genera of cycad being within the Zamiaceae family. Cycas circinalis, a species endemic to India, was the first cycad species to be described in western literature, and is the type species of the genus.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cycas", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,243 mm of 1,590 mm) falls in December to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.5 °C against a yearly mean of 23.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to October.

Rain

1,590 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,243 mm of it December to April. Wettest month February at 354 mm, driest month September at 25 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 978 mm to 2,479 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,611 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,590 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.8 °C, the absolute minimum 10.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 11.2 °C to 19.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.7 °C in December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -12 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cycas media through the yearWarmest months January and December, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 16.0 °C; 1,590 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°33.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–43RH 61–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 205 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 26–2926 / 24–2824 / 22–2622 / 21–2522 / 20–2423 / 21–2525 / 23–2727 / 25–2928 / 26–3029 / 27–31
Night °C24 / 20–2524 / 20–2523 / 19–2521 / 17–2419 / 15–2217 / 12–2016 / 11–2017 / 12–2019 / 14–2121 / 16–2322 / 18–2423 / 19–25
Rain mm321 / 196–464354 / 225–481250 / 107–449143 / 61–26772 / 35–14544 / 21–8135 / 15–7033 / 12–5425 / 9–5740 / 21–6798 / 66–152175 / 126–221
DLI39 / 36–4236 / 33–3835 / 33–3731 / 30–3327 / 25–2925 / 24–2727 / 25–2831 / 30–3339 / 37–4043 / 41–4443 / 41–4441 / 40–44
RH %65 / 62–6967 / 63–7165 / 61–6964 / 61–6963 / 60–6862 / 58–6661 / 57–6561 / 58–6561 / 57–6461 / 58–6562 / 59–6664 / 61–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 205 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (320 records in those cells; 16 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2168:6522 (-18.425, 146.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 205 distinct grid cells holding 320 of the 336 in-range records (16 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2168:6522 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -18.50_146.250, lapse-corrected -12 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 103 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeQueensland · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-17.002, 145.568 · in the densest population, 210 records (58% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 361 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 320 of them in the land cells it reads, of 336 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 208 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 21 km away. 44 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 25 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 361 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cycas media, photograph 1did not loadCycas media, photograph 2did not loadCycas media, photograph 3did not loadCycas media, photograph 4did not loadCycas media, photograph 5did not loadCycas media, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Daniel Montesinos, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Cissus repens Cissus repens Cissus Photo: CC0, author not statedFalcataria toona Falcataria toona Acacia Cedar Photo: CC BY, Bruce CathiePittosporum ferrugineum Pittosporum ferrugineum Rusty Pittosporum Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyDrynaria sparsisora Drynaria sparsisora Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldChionanthus ramiflorus Chionanthus ramiflorus Native Olive Photo: CC BY, Richard LittauerBursaria tenuifolia Bursaria tenuifolia Sweet Bursaria Photo: CC BY, Matt B

Other Cycas 39 in the reference

Cycas armstrongii Cycas armstrongii Zamia Palm Photo: CC BY, Stella FishCycas balansae Cycas balansae Balansa's sago Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizCycas bifida Cycas bifida Cycadaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Agnieszka Kwiecień, NovaCycas bougainvilleana Cycas bougainvilleana Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, C T JohanssonCycas cairnsiana Cycas cairnsiana Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, 阿橋 HQCycas calcicola Cycas calcicola Cycad Photo: CC BY, Donna Belder Cycas chamaoensis Chamao Hill Cycad Cycas changjiangensis Cycadaceae Cycas circinalis Cycas circinalis Queen sago Photo: CC BY, Navaneeth Sini GeorgeCycas clivicola Cycas clivicola Cycad Photo: CC BY, Caleb CattoCycas debaoensis Cycas debaoensis Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, DaderotCycas diannanensis Cycas diannanensis Cycadaceae Photo: CC0, Daderot all 40 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cycas media var. media. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cycadaceae
Described by
R.Br.
Native to
Queensland
Wild records
361 in range · 208 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 16 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -18.50_146.250, lapse-corrected -12 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 23 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…