How to tell the difference between palm trees and cycads

As someone who is a collector of cycads, and has been for many years, I can easily recognize the difference between a palm tree and a cycad. In the photo at the top of this post, the taller plant in the center is a palm, and the other plants, that look like small palm trees, are actually cycads.

And so you might say, "Ah ha! Cycads are smaller!" Well, not all of the time. You usually see cycads smaller, like what I have in my backyard, but they can get bigger. So just because a palm tree-looking plant is small doesn't mean it's a cycad. It might, after all, just be a small palm tree.

If you're getting frustrated now, calm down. When I became a graphic design teacher, back in the '90s, I quickly realized what was very obvious to me was often absolutely invisible to the untrained eye. Experts get that way, and can be impatient with people who aren't experts. I would just tell my students the same thing that I'm telling you now, spend some time observing. Just because someone can't recognize something doesn't mean it doesn't exist - the best example I give is between real diamonds and fake ones, which I wouldn't see even if you gave me a magnifying glass. I couldn't recognize real gold from fool's gold, either. But there are plenty of people who can! And that's my point.

The best place to start to begin recognizing the difference between palm trees and cycads is the price tag. Yes, go to a gardening center and find two plants that look virtually the same, and if one is a palm and the other is a cycad, the palm will be much less expensive. Palms grow much faster than cycads, and tend to be much easier to grow, and that's why for the same size they're cheaper.

If you make the mistake of asking a cycad expert, they may point out differences that are so wildly obscure you'll wonder if they're kidding, such as cones, or how often the plant grows. Yes, cycads create cones (not flowers) and only grow in a "flush" one or two times a year. By contrast palm trees flower, like almost every other plant on planet earth, and they grow continuously. Of course if you're just standing in a garden, that won't help much, unless you already know what palm flowers look like, and what a cycad cone is.

But there really is a difference, and once you start to see it, you'll also see the subtle differences between the different types of cycads. If you walked into my garden today and said, "Well, that revoluta is doing well, as are the dioons and the zamias!" I'd figure that you're a cycad collector. If you don't, that's fine, too, because I just planted these to give a nice tropical feel to the garden.

I wish that I could make this easier for you, but it will take some time for you to learn to recognize the difference between palm trees and cycads. But the good news is that it will happen, and pretty soon you'll be out in your garden in the summer waiting for a cycad flush, and maybe post it on your Facebook page for all of your cycad friends. It's exciting!