The cycad you refer to is actually a "male" clone of Encephalartos
woodii. It is apparently extinct in the wild but the surviving clone
has been propagated and as many as 500 specimens exist in botanic
gardens and private collections.

There are efforts to propagate E. woodii by tissue culture, to induce
a sex change to produce a "female" clone, and to breed a "female" by
first crossing with a closely related species and then repeatedly
backcrossing to the "male" clone.

Some people question whether E. woodii was ever a widespread species.
It may have been a single individual that arose as a intergeneric
hybrid. So maybe they never were any "females."

Reference

SEX CHANGE IN CYCADS - HOPE FOR WOODII?
http://www.plantapalm.com/vce/biology/sexchange.htm


David R. Hershey


"P van Rijckevorsel" wrote in message ...


+ + +
To pick more nits: it is debatable if the option to be propagated still is
reproduction. IIRC there is a species of Cycad of which only a 'female'
specimen is known (perhaps it is in Kew?), so as a species it is just about
extinct.
PvR