Cycas szechuanensis

Cycas szechaunensis has been recorded from Fujian and Guangdong provinces. In Fujian Province, the species is considered extremely rare, with only a few wild individuals surviving in remote mountain forests, and current estimates of 30 plants occurring within cultivated areas. The type specimen and most other specimens collected in Fujian represent cultivated individuals, and the species was only rediscovered in the wild in Fujian in 1999 (Hill 2008).

In Guangdong, five subpopulations (previously considered to be C. fairylakea) were reported by Shuguang et al. (2006), but three of these subpopulations were extremely small (<15 individuals) and only two sizeable subpopulations (Tanglanshan with 1,830 individuals, and Meilin with 850 individuals) were reported, both occurring in Shenzhen. A subsequent investigation reported 1,013 plants at the Meilin Reservoir population, mentioning that the population has been in decline since its discovery (Huang et al. 2012). In the latest available paper, Zheng et al. (2017) noted that they were unable to locate plants in the wild and all the plants they saw were cultivated. The decline over the past three generations (120 years) is estimated as >80% because of habitat degradation and over-exploitation for the ornamental trade.