gymnosperm

an ancestral fossil type from which modern gymnosperms are thought to have derived

curious plant of arid regions of southwestern Africa having a yard-high and yard-wide trunk like a turnip with a deep taproot and two large persistent woody straplike leaves growing from the base; living relic of a flora long disappeared; some may be 700-5000 years old

any tropical gymnosperm of the order Cycadales; having unbranched stems with a crown of fernlike leaves

an extinct seed-producing fernlike plant of the order Cycadofilicales (or group Pteridospermae)

dwarf palmlike cycad of Japan that yields sago

any of various cycads of the genus Zamia; among the smallest and most verdant cycads

a small cycad of the genus Ceratozamia having a short scaly woody trunk and fernlike foliage and woody cones; Mexico

any cycad of the genus Dioon; handsome palmlike cycads with robust crowns of leaves and rugged trunks

any of numerous cycads of the genus Encephalartos having stout cylindrical trunks and a terminal crown of long often spiny pinnate leaves

South African cycad; the farinaceous pith of the fruit used as food

any treelike cycad of the genus Macrozamia having erect trunks and pinnate leaves and large cones with sometimes edible nuts; Australia

large attractive palmlike evergreen cycad of New South Wales