Venda Cycads are seed plants with a long fossil history; they were formerly more abundant and more diverse than they are today.
They typically have a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff, evergreen leaves.
They have pinnate leaves. The individual plants are either all male or all female (dioecious).
Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimetres to several metres tall.
They typically grow very slowly and live very long, with some specimens known to be over a 1,000 years old.
Their superficial resemblance makes them sometimes be mistaken for palms or ferns, but they are not closely related to either group.
The cycads desirability as a specimen and ornamental plants in greenhouses and gardens has led to overharvesting of many species from the wild.
Because of this, some species are nearly extinct, and a number are critically endangered. Therefore, most cycads are, protected by conservation laws in their native countries.
