Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow very slowly and live very long. Because of their superficial resemblance, they are sometimes mistaken for palms or ferns, but they are not closely related to either group.
Cycad
Cycads in South Africa
Cycads have a rosette of pinnate leaves around a cylindrical trunk
Bowenia spectabilis : plant with single frond in the Daintree rainforest, north-east Queensland
A seed plant or spermatophyte, also known as a phanerogam or a phaenogam, is any plant that produces seeds. It is a category of embryophyte that includes most of the familiar land plants, including the flowering plants and the gymnosperms, but not ferns, mosses, or algae.
Image: Pinus Sylvestris
Image: Acer pseudoplatanus Chaltenbrunnen
Drawing of Runcaria megasporangium and cupule, resembling a seed without a solid seed coat