That's a beauty Stan, and that growth is pretty incredible. Why don't you put it in the ground?

First..reverse on what I wrote on the leaflets..its raised above for the C.circinalis.
I think it does better in a large pot for me since I don't live in a hot summer climate...the soil in the pot warms more then the ground warms. I think that's the reason it wouldn't flush when it was in the ground- 4 years of never a single flush.
Cycads seem built to outlast your mistakes...just waiting until you get it right.

Here is the same plant in cycad garden, Lotusland, Santa Barbara⦠it is labeled as Cycas species as there is still some doubt at what species this very common plant is actually. NOT Cycas thoursii for sure, but still doubts about it being a form of C rumphii (that species has seeds that float and Cycas 'circinalis' seeds don't seem to do that). this wonderful garden is closely tended by some world class cycad experts⦠and they are still unsure how to label these plants.

Here is another one in the Los Angeles arboretum that is over 25' tall⦠these plants get huge eventually.

To my eye...the first says Cycas circinalis all over it. Even that crook in the trunk looks familiar. Mine hasn't not pupped yet. The second one is so large in non tropical California I would bet on it being C.thoursii or C.umpii. UC Berkeley's tropical greenhouse has C.thoursii and its massive. ~12' or so and long,deep green fronds. The trunk is as straight as a telephone pole.
Its funny Geoff but in the tropics all grow 30'..but when you get them to the mild temperate climates some do not keep up with other species,seems to me at least.
One more question Geoff, Is the printed material about "midribs" also not a true difference? Is that still a debate too? If it is,then I will never know the difference for sure.

as far as I am aware, all three of these 'species' have prominent raised midribs. C thoursii is a bluer-leaved plant and much more cold sensitive species and would never have survived to grow to that height in the arboretum which sees a lot of freezing temps almost every winter. As for C rumphii⦠still not sure if all these plants aren't just some form of that⦠though I have to say all the C rumphiis I saw identified as such in the tropics had slightly wavy leaflets. Though they also have abundant 'C circinalis' all over growing in nearly every yard in which other interesting tropicals are growing, which were much more monstrous than any C rumphii I ever saw. They have actual 'trees' of this 'circinalis' species all over Hawaii⦠not only huge but massively thick and highly branched (branches weighing over 100lbs routinely fall off these plants)⦠For a while some cycas folks were calling these the 'smooth-leaved rumphiis' and just leaving the circinalis name alone altogether, saying that true circinalis was so rare in cultivation I was not to worry as I would never glimpse one. But now I am not sure what the Cycas experts are saying anymore as many have died and others left the areaâ¦