LAHORE – A 176-year-old Queen Sago Palm, belonging to an ancient plant lineage that predates the dinosaurs, is in full leaf at Lahore’s Lawrence Garden, highlighting the botanical significance of one of the city’s oldest green spaces.

A spokesperson for the Punjab Horticulture Authority (PHA) said the prehistoric tree was older than the historic garden itself, which was developed in the 1860s as a botanical garden and recreational space modelled on London’s Kew Gardens.

The Queen Sago Palm belongs to the Cycad family, an ancient group of seed-bearing plants whose fossil record dates back approximately 280 to 300 million years to the Permian period. Cycads flourished during the Mesozoic Era, when dinosaurs dominated the Earth. Their widespread presence during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods earned the era the distinction of being called the “Age of Cycads”, alongside the “Age of Dinosaurs”. Herbivorous dinosaurs, including long-necked sauropods, are believed to have fed on the foliage, cones and nutrient-rich seeds of cycads, including Sago Palms, which were widespread during that period.

Cycads are known for their exceptionally slow growth and remarkable longevity. Horticulture experts say Sago Palms generally require four to five hours of sunlight daily and relatively little water once established. Their hardy nature enables them to survive in varied conditions, including comparatively dry environments and poor soils. Their structure has remained largely unchanged over hundreds of millions of years, earning them the title of “living fossils”. However, the ancient plant group faces a growing conservation threat, with around 60 per cent of assessed cycad species listed as threatened with extinction in their natural habitats on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

The PHA spokesperson said the authority was responsible not only for maintaining the province’s green cover but also for looking after some of the world’s oldest prehistoric trees.

He said the Sago Palm at Lawrence Garden was particularly significant because it was both prehistoric and belonged to a threatened plant group. The spokesperson said Lawrence Garden was considered one of Asia’s largest botanical gardens, housing around 150 varieties of trees, including 30 species of palms. Its botanical collection includes trees and plants brought by the British from different parts of the Indian Empire, as well as Austria, Palestine, Syria and other European regions, he added.