Investigation of morphological and anatomical features of cycad (Cycas revoluta Thunb.) for identification of male and female plants befor maturity

Here and for the first time, this paper reports sex determination of cycad (Cycas revoluta Thunb.) befor maturity and cone formation. Sex determination in cycad is possible only after maturity and cone formation. At least, the 10 to 12 years in optimal conditions is needed for cycad to reach maturity. In this research, two-year old male and female off-shoots of cycad were separated from the adult male and female plants and were treated in natural conditions, uniformly. Morphological characteristics of male and female plants were visually compared. Anatomical features were studied on the sections prepared from primary leaf rachis, leaflet and root by light microscope. According to the Discriminate Analysis (DA) method, differences between morphological characteristics of male and female plants such as leaf rachis diameter, leaflets width, leaflets distance on the rachis, leaflets angle on the rachis, roots diameter and length, were significant. The arrangement of leaves in one third of middle part was bipinnate with opposite leaflets and bipinnate with alternate leaflets in male and female plants, respectively. New leaflet initiates to forms befor and after completely formation of previous leaflet in female and male plants, respectively. Anatomical studies showed that the difference between the lengths of lower stomata in male and female leaflets were significant. Type of stoma in cycad leaf is actinocytic.