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Chinese Cycads

Cycads

Cycads are plants extending back 250 million years to the early Permian period, before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Today, just a few types exist, and these face possible extinction in the wild. Jia-rui Chen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences studies living cycads in south China, one of the richest areas of cycad diversity in the world. With a grant from National Geographic, he has been cataloging the trees and hopes to discover new species before threats drive them to extinction, the fate their fossil ancestors met. (Cycadaceae)

Photograph by Martin Harvey/Corbis