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Cycas micronesica; photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-24

Cycas micronesica K.D.Hill

Federico Nut; Micronesian Cycad

Cycadaceae · Caroline Is., Marianas +1

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Cycas micronesica, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cycas micronesica, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cycas micronesica, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cycas micronesica, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cycas micronesica, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cycas micronesica, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY) 49 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
25.7°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,792mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 6 records in 5 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Cycas micronesica is a species of cycad found on the island of Yap in Micronesia, the Mariana islands of Guam and Rota, and The Republic of Palau. It is commonly known as federico nut or fadang in Chamorro. The species, previously lumped with Cycas rumphii and Cycas circinalis, was described as a unique species in 1994 by Ken Hill. Paleoecological studies have determined that Cycas micronesica has been present on the island of Guam for about 9,000 years. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cycas micronesica", 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 no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,852 mm of 3,816 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 0.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

3,816 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,852 mm of it May to December. Wettest months (2 at 462 mm), driest month April at 204 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,637 mm to 3,862 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,792 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,816 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 40 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 31, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 25.7 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 25.3 °C to 25.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.0 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 25.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 66% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 6 records in 5 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cycas micronesica through the yearWarmest months April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 25.7 °C; 3,816 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 31–40RH 64–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 5 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 27–2827 / 27–2727 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 28–2828 / 28–2828 / 28–2828 / 28–2828 / 28–2828 / 28–2828 / 28–2828 / 27–28
Night °C26 / 26–2626 / 25–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–26
Rain mm294 / 137–300247 / 117–252219 / 85–221204 / 93–206331 / 118–332462 / 224–470462 / 314–473356 / 349–451328 / 322–348322 / 318–332295 / 256–301296 / 178–302
DLI33 / 33–3336 / 35–3739 / 39–4240 / 40–4336 / 36–4332 / 32–3933 / 32–3634 / 33–3436 / 34–3634 / 33–3432 / 32–3231 / 31–31
RH %65 / 64–6565 / 64–6564 / 64–6565 / 64–6666 / 65–6766 / 65–6766 / 65–6865 / 64–6865 / 64–6866 / 65–6866 / 65–6866 / 65–67

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 36% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 24.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 25.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.7 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (6 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1654:6288 (7.275, 134.425). 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 5 distinct grid cells holding 6 of the 7 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1654:6288 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 36% land and none of the 4 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.50_134.375, lapse-corrected +23 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 30 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.
NativeCaroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is. · 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 marker13.538, 144.937 · in the densest population, 97 records (89% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 109 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 6 of them in the land cells it reads, of 7 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 38 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 14 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 102 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 109 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 micronesica, photograph 1did not loadCycas micronesica, photograph 2did not loadCycas micronesica, photograph 3did not loadCycas micronesica, photograph 4did not loadCycas micronesica, photograph 5did not loadCycas micronesica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Spathoglottis carolinensis Spathoglottis carolinensis Caroline ground orchid Photo: CC BY-SA, Thibaud AronsonIxora casei Ixora casei Giant red Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M. Piper ponapense Pepper Heterospathe elata Heterospathe elata Sagisi palm Photo: CC BY, GabrielDendrobium gouldii Dendrobium gouldii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, bukoba_stevePtychosperma salomonense Ptychosperma salomonense Arecaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, David J. Stang

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 rumphii f. palauica. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cycadaceae
Described by
K.D.Hill
Native to
Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is.
Wild records
109 in range · 38 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.50_134.375, lapse-corrected +23 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (36% land), so no cold floor is shown
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 3 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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