Editing Macrozamia douglasii

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[[File:Macrozamia_douglasii.jpg|frame|Figure 1. ''M. douglasii'' in habitat, Fraser Island.]]
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===Introduction: ===
Fraser Island (off the South Queensland coast)
is famous for a number of reasons. It
abounds in botanical flora, has magnificent freshwater lakes,
is unique in its reptile life (the little dark shelled
terrapin of one lake), large belts of rain forest and drier
forest are there, heavily wooded wallum country runs through
it, and much of the seaward foreshore have really fine
coloured sand cliffs. Indeed these latter are possibly better
than the coloured sands of Rainbow Beach and Teewah!
Fraser is also noted for its long beaches and is a draw
card to recreational surf-cast fishermen from everywhere!
Following this pursuit, I spent some days on the island
recently and had a chance to examine its cycad which is named
''Macrozamia douglasii''.

Mentioned in several botanical papers, and especially by
the late Dr Start Blake of the Queensland botany department,
Dr. Blake stated it is one of the variable forms of
''[[Macrozamia miquelii]]''.
Taking this to be true I can only comment here that the
pronounced differences in the two plants make this form the
"oddball" of the miquelii species!
Remembering well the great stands of these plants in
various parts of the terrain of Fraser Island it appears to
grow on strata that is mostly just sand (except for a thin
layer of decomposed rain forest top cover.
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===Description: ===
''Macrozamia douglasii'' develops a great symmetrical
circle of leaf fronds, the largest I personally have seen was
some 3 metres tall and about 4 metres in circumference. The
caudex is mostly subterranean in most of the plants near the
tracks, but occasionally there emerges plants of obvious
great antiquity with a pronounced caudex of 1 metre in height.
The central new fronds rise from the apex with the
pinnae starting small and curled and developing quickly as in
the other forms of ''M. miquelii''.
Male plants have multiple cones low on the plant and
also are similar as in ''[[Macrozamia miquelii]]''. The female plants
have mostly single cones developing in the axils of leaf
fronds. However I did observe as many as three cones on one
plant. The cones are characteristic of all ''Macrozamia'' with
the seed evident, orange-red fruit visible through the green
spine bearing pads that form the cone.
The seed is definitely larger than the form found nearer
to Brisbane at Upper Brookfield, and the cone also is larger
in size.  Size of largest cones would compare favourable
with the ''Macrozamia miquelii'' around the hills of Gympie,
Queensland.

===Habitat: ===
This island zamia grows on quite a few different
habitats of Fraser Island, sometimes in quite moist sandy
situations near freshwater swamp. Often on dry ridges beneath
Banksia, eucalypt and in valleys among great stands of grass
trees.

===Cultivation: ===
The seed germinates well, even lying beneath the parent.
Initial growth is single fronded with one or two more in
second year up to five years, when the crown forms and
hardens. At this stage the growth accelerates if the plant is
treated as a container plant.

''Macrozamia douglasii'' is variable in leaf colour. Plants
generally are blue-grey in foliage, but seedling leaf colour
is dark green.
The gender of these plants is not the mystery it is
sometimes stated. In more mature plants it is easy to pick
the females because of the little seedlings growing close to
the caudex around them.

Quite obviously as in all our ''Macrozamia'', these plants
are a source of food supply to the marsupials on Fraser
Island. The toxins in the fruit causing no apparent
discomfort to the creature.


===Contributed by: ===
Len Butt (Text - from '''Palms & Cycads''' No. 21, Oct-Dec 1988).<br/>


===External Links:===
[https://www.cycadlist.org/taxon.php?Taxon_ID=385 World List], 
[https://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/42001/0 IUCN],
[https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=Macrozamia+douglasii JSTOR],
[https://www.trebrown.com/plant_info.php?species=Macrozamia+douglasii Trebrown]
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[https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Macrozamia+douglasii%22&amp;num=10&amp;sa=Google+Search Google],
[https://images.google.com/images?q=%22Macrozamia+douglasii%22&amp;hl=en&amp;btnG=Google+Search GoogleImages],
[https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Macrozamia+douglasii Flickr],
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[[Category:Macrozamia|douglasii]]
[[Category:Cycad|Macrozamia_douglasii]]