Bowenia spectabilis
A fern-like cycad from the wet tropics of north-east Queensland, growing from an underground yam-like rhizome that sends up bipinnate fronds with glossy leaflets. It lives in shaded rainforest beside streams and on sheltered slopes, so it wants warmth, steady moisture, high humidity and shade, unlike most sun-loving cycads.
Where it grows wild
Rainforest understorey and wet sclerophyll forest close to streams and on sheltered slopes. Some populations reach into fire-prone sclerophyll woodland, where the underground stem lets it resprout.
Recorded from 10 to 900 m, median 460 m; literature gives up to about 700 m on the Atherton Tableland.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, unmodified.