Maha-madu

Cycas zeylanica

''Cycas zeylanica'', common name Maha-madu is a plant apparently at present endemic to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It was formerly also present in Sri Lanka, but the last remnants of the populations there were destroyed by the tsunami of December 2004.

''Cycas zeylanica'' is an unbranched shrub up to 3 m tall. Leaves are up to 200 cm long, green, glossy, pinnately compound with up to 100 leaflets. Pollen-producing cones fusiform , microsporophylls up to 45 mm long. Megasporophylls up to 30 cm long, each with 2-5 ovules. Seeds flattened to ovoid, orange-brown.