The importance of Odisha Cycas in India

Abstract

Cycads are an ancient group of seed plants that evolved during the Permo-Carboniferous period, some 280 million years ago, and rose to abundance in the Jurassic period, just as dinosaurs did in the animal world. The group has survived mass extinctions and though depleted in numbers with only 10 genera, about 350 species are known to occur as scattered populations in the tropics and subtropics of the world. According to a report of the Cycad Specialist Group (SSC/IUCN) about 53% of the cycad taxa are facing threats and fall into one of the categories of the IUCN Red List of threatened plants (Donaldson 2003). Indian cycads are represented by the basal genus Cycas, with nine species. The species are distributed in the southern Western Ghats, Karnataka, Eastern Ghats and North-eastern states of India continuing up to the Andaman and Nicobar group of islands. Out of the nine species, two species occur naturally in the Eastern Ghats. Cycas beddomei Dyer is a palaeoendemic to the Cuddapah Hills, and Cycas sphaerica Roxb. (nee C. circinalis var. orixensis Haines) populations are natural understorey dwellers in the forests of north-eastern Ghats of Odisha (formerly Orissa). Rapid decimation of their habitat, primarily due to overharvesting of seeds and land use changes, is a matter of concern as the systematics and phylogeny of the cycads in this region have yet to be fully explored.