This sago palm looks a lot like any other palm tree, right? It looks like a palm tree. Its sign says it’s a palm tree. Must be a palm tree. However, it’s not a palm tree at all. Given that information, you might be wondering “If it’s not a palm tree, what is this thing?” It’s a very special kind of plant called a cycad. They may look like palm trees, but they aren’t the same. For one, cycads are WAY older. Cycads first appear in the fossil record about 300 million years ago (USGS). That’s at least 60 million years before any of the dinosaurs. Palm trees didn’t evolve until at most 100 million years ago (KEW). I guess it would actually be more fair to say that palms look like cycads. Cycads looked this way before it was cool. Palm trees evolved later, and copied their aesthetic. Luckily, there are still a few ways for us to identify which one is which.

 

            You can tell a cycad apart from a palm by looking for the cones. Cycads reproduce with cones, just like you’d find on a pine tree, but often a lot bigger. They usually grow up from the middle of the cycad’s stem, like they do on this one. It’s not a coincidence that I compared the cones to those of a pine tree, because pine trees are some of the cycad’s closest relatives. They’re in a group called the “gymnosperms,” which reproduce using cones like these.

 

            By comparison, palm trees have flowers (though they’re often hard to see). These flowers put the palms in the “angiosperm” group. All flowering plants are in the angiosperm group, which branched off from gymnosperms about 200 million years ago. The flowering plants are now more common than the gymnosperms, but that hasn’t stopped the gymnosperms from thriving too. The world’s tallest tree, the coast redwood, grows 380 ft. tall, starting as a seed inside a cone (redwood). The world’s oldest living individual organism is a bristlecone pine, whose seed fell from a cone almost 5000 years ago (bristlecone).

 

            So. We’ve established that cone-bearing gymnosperms are cool and all, but what about this cycad in front of us? What makes it special? What’s special is that it’s one of the few cycads that isn’t at risk of extinction (LA Times). The Sago palm, which I may remind you isn’t a palm, is not threatened. This confusingly-named cycad grows naturally on the Ryukyu islands of Southern Japan. It used to be in a riskier position, when people would steal seeds to grow their own sago palms in captivity (IUCN). Now that the plants are easy to find at any garden supply store, there’s not much demand for stolen seeds. Because the only threats to its habitat are now mostly over, the IUCN counts the sago palm as a species of least concern. Because of this success, it will serve as a standard of comparison for the other species on this tour. With the power of captive breeding, humans saved this once-threatened plant, so maybe we can save the others on this list too. However, there’s also a darker side to the sago palm’s story.

 

            Imagine yourself living on the tropical island of Okinawa, Japan. It’s 1923, during an economic depression that would last until 1930. Typhoons have destroyed the farms, and fishing won’t support the whole island. What do you eat? Probably the Sago palm. The Okinawan poet, Yonaha Mikio, recounts how to use it in one of his poems: He tells us that first, you shave away the outside of the tree trunk, leaving the white center. You dry that part it and grind it into flour. After you let it sit in the sun, it’s powder. When combined with water, it’s basically pudding. It even tastes sweet. That starchy mixture is actually called sago, and it’s what gives the sago palm its name. That all sounds great until you die of internal bleeding soon after eating it. If you survive the bleeding, you’ll probably still have permanent brain damage. See, what I didn’t tell you is that the title of Mikio’s poem translates to “Tasty Poison.” If you don’t ferment that stuff long enough, your delicious pudding will be laced with the many horrifying poisons that the sago palms use to defend themselves. Many of the Okinawans that tried to make the sago paste didn’t ferment it long enough. During the early 1900’s, the residents of Okinawa ran into this problem so frequently that this period in their history got a special name: Sotetsu jigoku. Cycad hell.

 

            This is important for you to consider if you want to get one of these plants. Nowadays, most people don’t make sago with them, but that doesn’t stop pets and small children from gnawing on toxic cycads. If you keep any animals, make sure to keep them away. The seeds are especially toxic, and are the most likely part to get eaten on accident (VCA). Still, it’s important to remember that seeds are toxic for a reason. After hanging out on Earth for 300 million years, the cycads have survived in part because their offspring are so well-defended. These plants are suited to the ecosystems they live in. Humans have done a decent job of protecting this particular species, too, and that is something to celebrate. Sure sago palms might be poisonous and spiky, and their name might be slightly dishonest, but I think you’ll find they grow on you.