Proceedings of Cycad 2005

The 7th International Conference on Cycad Biology
Edited by Andrew P. Vovides, Dennis Wm. Stevenson, and Roy Osborne

This title is volume 97 of Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden. Cycads have been around for 250 million years, during which time they have retained seemingly unchanged features. They also have developed unique characteristics that are used today in medicine and agriculture, lending to their status as an irreplaceable group within the world’s biodiverse plant kingdom.

The International Conference on Cycad Biology, held every three years since its inception in 1987, has become a prominent meeting, centering on all aspects of the biology of this unusual, important, and interesting group of plants. The conferences stimulate research ranging from horticultural aspects to conservation and neurobiology and promote ex-situ and in-situ conservation globally. Each of the conferences has produced a volume of papers on the varied aspects of cycad biology; this volume is the seventh and most extensive in the series.

This volume represents the current state of knowledge about the evolution, pollination biology, ethnobotany, conservation status, and molecular biological aspects, among other topics, of the living cycads. Some of the articles are in Spanish, and all have Spanish and English abstracts.

Even though these plants have survived the vicissitudes of time and trials, they are now endangered as a result of human activities. Of particular interest are the several papers in this volume on the conservation biology—both ex situ and in situ—of the group, pest control issues, the role of insects and birds in the biology of cycads, and the relationship of these plants to human activities and their role in many cultures.

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