Species library › Cycas › Cycas balansae
Other Partly documented

Cycas balansae

A small cycad with a mostly underground stem from the mountain rainforests of northern Vietnam and southern China. It grows in the forest understory, so it wants brighter shade than most cycads, warm wet summers and a cooler, drier winter. Rare in cultivation and listed as Endangered.

Cycas balansae
Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Humid airBand in Plantistry
Light Dappled lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

Understory of dense, humid evergreen mountain forest, growing on the forest floor with its stem largely below ground.

The measured sites lie at about 560–1,570 m; the literature gives no firm altitude range.

ChinaGuangxiYunnanVietnam

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Cycas balansae? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

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.