Cycads

Three examples of a plant I see walking in the neighborhood. They are not palms or palmettos but cycads. The cycad fossil record dates to the early Permian, 280 million years ago (mya) and possibly older cycad fossils that date to the late Carboniferous period, 325 to 300 million years ago. They were once very extensive but are not widely distributed today, some going extinct.  They are prized garden plants around here, but expensive. The gnarly pods are the exposed seeds, they are gymnosperms and do not have true seeds.  They have separate sexed plants, which are fertilized by certain beetles.