Dioon Spinulosum in the wilds of Mexico....the real story

[chumleycycads.com]

Wes, you mentioned that Dioon Spinulosum was an understory plant in Mexico. That is not entirely true. If you search for Spinulosum In the jungles East of Vera Cruz in the interior part of Central Mexico, you don't find it except on the very top of the mountains near Tezemnapa. I was last there in 1976 on a trip (PRE CITIES) to collect Dioon Spinulosum two ft. trunks to bring back to Florida. Now you may think this is cruel, but the only way to collect 2 ft. trunks was to cut the last two ft. of a 20 ft. tree with a machete and lower it down with a rope and then remove all leaves from the bud. Then carry it all the way down the mountain and load the 2 ft. Spinulosum log into our Dodge van. The first one I carried down the mountain had a very large TARANTULA which I guess enjoyed the ride. Wes, the ONLY thing I am afraid of is spiders. If you cut the Spinulosum at an angle (so it would repel rainwater).....the tree would have a split caudex the next year when we returned , and would have multiple heads. So, NO, the tree did not die from our surgery......and we did NOT consider ourselves "POACHERS" as many from the Yahoo Cycad Forum would have you believe. Incidentally, we would also collect seed pods off of these trees, many of them weighing over 200 lb. I think we brought back 50 logs on that trip and everyone of them rooted for me and I'm sure now 31 years later are very large trees themselves in various Cycad collections here in the USA. OH, those were the good ole days! Robert Chumley

[Kansas]

Robert, My bad, I thought you told me that they were an understory tree. Must have been some other tree you were talking about. Maybe the Merolea?
IMO, you are NOT a "poacher" if you cut the tree in a way that it doesn't die, but rather grows back.
I have some other questions for you, but I'll call you some time this week.