The third section of subgenus Cycas is section Endemicae (Schuster) Wang, 1996 (in Wang & Liang, Cycads of China: 28; subsection Endemicae Schuster, 1932, in Engler, Pflanzenr. 99: 65), which occurs across the northern and northeastern margins of Australia and into a small part of New Guinea closest to Australia.  It is distinguished by the erect narrowly acuminate sterile apex of the microsporophyll with a sharp upward bend in the middle of the acumen.  The size of the sterile apex varies strongly depending on where on the cone it appears; the erect part is 6-17 mm long while the hooked tip is mostly 6-11 mm long but sporadic reports of 6-20 or even 30 mm have been made.  Leaves in almost all species reach about 150 cm long or a little more.  The petioles may be thornless or mostly covered with 3-5 mm thorns from one leaf to the next.  The midvein is prominent on the lower side of the pinnae but the upper side varies.  There is always an apical spine on the megasporophyll which varies substantially in length.  The fruit becomes yellowish to orange-brown and does not have a fibrous layer.  Sixteen species are included in this section and can be divided into three groups.  The type species is C. media. 

The first group of section Endemicae has sharp teeth on the apical margins of the megasporophyll to at least 2 mm long and usually to 6 x nearly 2 mm.  It is not unusual for individual specimens here and elsewhere to have few or no teeth due to insect damage or erosion due to age.  Typically the apical spine is 8-25 mm long but longer examples are not uncommon.  There are nine species in the group four of which could easily be reduced to varieties.
 

Cycas Media

Cycas ophiolitica Hill, 1992 (Telopea 5: 190)
C. megacarpa Hill, 1992 (Telopea 5: 188) 
Very similar to C. media but with smaller leaves to 140 cm long that are moderately keeled and about one quarter petiole.  C. megacarpa and C. ophiolitica grow south of C. media with the former further south and intermediates are seen between all three.  C. megacarpa is distinguished by slightly larger fruits and C. ophiolitica by a wooly apex and glaucousness on early growth.  These kinds of variation can be seen all over the Cycas area of Australia. 

Cycas silvestris Hill, 1992 (Telopea 5: 181) 
Differs from C. media only in the wider pinnae (9-15 mm) and the smooth trunk due to complete shedding of all lateral structures.  Such differences often merit erection of no more than a variety.  Found at the northern end of C. media distribution. 

Cycas arenicola Hill, 1993 (Telopea 5: 419) 
C. arnhemica Hill, l994 (Telopea 5: 693) 
C. maconochiei Chirgwin & Hill, 1996 (Telopea 7: 181) 
Differs from C. media in the spinescent apex of the pinnae and the more elongated pollen cones as well as the more or less dense wooly tomentum around the stem apex and the orange brown tomentum on the underside of the pinnae which are 7-19 cm x 4-7 mm. The fruit and the leaves are at least slightly glaucous.  Like most of the section, the leaves are smaller than those of C. media and their petiole is up to one quarter their length.  Teeth tend to appear on the apical spine of the megasporophyll.  Leaves can be slightly   keeled as well as the pinnae,  The brown tomentum on the pinnae underside is shared with neighboring C. calcicola and suggests an introgression.  Hill makes much of the soft and not spine tipped cataphylls here  and elsewhere associated with dense wooly shoot apices but a close inspection reveals that these are actually quite sharp.  Variations in the glaucousness and the wool have been used to separate several species.  Endemic to the northern edge of Northern Territory. 

Cycas yorkiana Hill, 1996 (Telopea 7: 18) 
C. badensis Hill, 1996 (Telopea 7: 20) 
C. tuckeri Hill, 1996 (Telopea 7: 20) 
C. semota Hill, 1996 (Telopea 7: 23) 
Differs from C. arenicola in the lack of brown tomentum on the pinnae underside and the lack of glaucousness.  Such differences should probably merit no more than varietal status.  Differences in the wool and the length or width of the megasporophyll have been used to separate several species.  Endemic to the northernmost part of Queensland. 

Cycas armstrongii Miquel, 1868 (Archiv. Neerland. Sci. Exact. Et Naturelles 3: 235)
Distinguished by the flat pinnae 7-18 cm x 4-10 mm with the midvein equally prominent on both sides and with a spinescent apex.  The leaves are also flat and up to 120 cm long with one quarter as petiole.  The pollen cones are ovoid and up to 23 x 12 cm.  The fruit is up to 43 x 38 mm and not glaucous.  The apical spine on the megasporophyll is quite variable (about 10-25 mm or even longer).  The apex of the stem is orange wooly.  The trunk itself is no more than 10 cm in diameter.  Endemic to the area around Darwin. 

Cycas papuana Muell., 1878 (Papuana Pl. 4: 71) 
C. lane-poolei Gardner, 1923 (For. Dept. Bull. Perth 32: 30) 
C. orientis Hill, 1994 (Telopea 5: 696) 
C. canalis Hill, 1994 (Telopea 5: 698) 
C. xipholepis Hill, 1996 (Telopea 7: 32) 
Differs from the nearby C. armstrongii only in the more robust trunk (at least 14 cm in diameter) and a tendency for emerging pinnae and fruit to be somewhat glaucous.  It is doubtful that such differences merit more than varietal status under C. armstrongii which was first to be described.  C. papuana is the northern equivalent to C. media being spread across the northern fringes of Australia and into the nearby part of New Guinea.  It is divided into five separate populations and each one has been named a separate species.  C. xipholepis is said not to have a wooly apex. 

Cycas conferta Chirgwin, 1993 (in Chirgwin et al, Jour. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 15: 147) 
The crowded flat pinnae give this tree a very distinct look but, otherwise, there is really no detectable difference from C. papuana.  It occupies an area just south of C. armstrongii which it also resembles substantially.  Is a noticeable “look” sufficient to support a distinct species? 

Cycas angulata R. Br., 1810 (Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. & Ins. Van Dieman: 348) 
C. platyphylla Hill, 1992 (Telopea 5: 193) 
C. coutsiana Hill, 1992 (Telopea 5: 197) 
C. brunnea Hill, 1992 (Telopea 5: 200) 
Distinguished by small teeth to 2 mm long on the megasporophyll and the strongly keeled leaves to 170 cm long about one quarter petiole with narrow spinescent tipped more or less keeled pinnae to 27 cm x 4-7 mm, glaucous when new.  The ovoid pollen cones reach some 25 x 15 cm in size.  The fruits reach 49 x 39 mm and are usually glaucous.  The midvein of the pinnae is raised on the lower side only and the apex of the stem is wooly.  Endemic to the southern margins of the Gulf of Carpenteria and to the east in the mountains in Queensland.

The second group under section Endemicae is made up of three very rare species with tiny 1 mm teeth on the megasporophyll which is not more than 25 mm wide.  Otherwise, there is nothing particularly unusual about these plants.  The leaves are up to about 120 cm long or somewhat longer roughly one quarter of which is petiole.  The pinnae are up to about 20 cm long and not more than 8 mm wide.  What little is known about the pollen cone suggests elongated ovoid something like 30 x 10 cm.  The fruits are maybe 40 x 35 mm.  They are endemic to Queensland among the other cycad species there.  (Perhaps this group could be expanded to include C. angulata.)

Cycas normanbyana Muell., 1874 (Fragm. Phytogr. Austr. 8: 164) 
Distinguished by the long and narrow (70-100 x 13-20 mm) lanceolate apex of the megasporophyll.  The pinnae are 6-8 mm wide.  The megasporophyll apex is ever so slightly acuminate.  Australian botanists insist that there is no such species because they have not seen living material and yet it has been collected twice by competent collectors, once by Fitzalen in 1874 near the Burdekin R. estuary and once by Brass in 1948 at the northern end of the Cape York Penninsula.  Hill (1992, Telopea 5: 184) reported to have  seen a photo of the type and asserted that the distinguishing characters used by Mueller (curled fronds and [not even] 4-seeded megasporophylls) occur widely among C. media populations and placed the species in synonomy.  He did not address the strikingly distinct apex of the megasporophyll.  He placed the other collection into C. semota where it also has a strikingly distinct megasporophyll apex. 

Cycas cairnsiana Muell., 1876 (Fragm. Phytogr. Austr. 10: 63) 
Distinguished by the strongly glaucous keeled leaves with spinescent tipped pinnae up to 18 cm x 2-4 mm.  The triangular apex of the megasporophyll is up to 25 mm wide and the apical spine is 15-24 mm long.  The apex of  the stem is dense wooly and the petioles are partly to completely covered with thorns.  Endemic to northeastern Queensland and long cultivated but the wild population only recently identified. 

Cycas desolata Forster, 1995 (Austrobaileya 4: 345) 
Differs from nearby C. cairnsiana by slightly wider pinnae (18-21 cm x 3.5-5 mm) and by the apical spine of the megasporophyll 5-15 mm long.  The petioles bear few or no thorns.  Recently “rediscovered” (Leichardt apparently saw it in 1845 along the upper Burdekin R.).  With more material, it may come to be seen as virtually the same taxon or perhaps a variety of C. cairnsiana. 
The third group under section Endemicae is distinguished by short blunt peg-like teeth on the megasporophyll 2-3 mm wide and the individual teeth diminishing apically.  That is to say, they differ fundamentally from the rest of the subgenus and yet the microsporophylls are typical thereby.  The upper corner of the “peg” is acute.  There is a distinct apical spine on the megasporophyll.  The leaves are up to 150 cm or a little more long about one sixth of which is petiole which has thorns to about half way down.  The pinnae have spinescent tips, have curved margins, and diminish basally.  The pollen cones are tapering spindle-shaped (fusiform) no more than about 9 cm in diameter but at least 34 cm long.  The fruits are approximately 36 x 32 mm and glaucous.  Endemic to a small area in northeastern West Australia and nearby parts of Northern Territory.  In a very real way this group of species constitutes a bridge between the two subgenera of Cycas. 

Cycas furfuracea Fitzgerald, 1918 (Jour. & Proc. Royal Soc. W. Aust. 3: 108) 
Distinguished by the apex of the megasporophyll 79-95 x 20-32 mm with a terminal spine 25-65 mm long and peg teeth 2-5 mm long.  The leaves are strongly keeled and the pinnae 6-20 cm x 6-8 mm, usually glaucous.  The most western of its group of species.  

Cycas basaltica Gardner, 1923 (Bull. Woods & Forests Dept. W. Austr. 32: 31) 
Distinguished by the apex of the megasporophyll 50-90 x 14-19 mm with a terminal spine 20-35 mm long and peg-teeth 3-4 mm long.  The leaves are flat and the pinnae 9-12 cm x 5-9 mm, not glaucous.  Located in the northernmost part of West Australia.  Except for the flat leaves, close enough to C. furfuracea to be considered a variety. 

Cycas pruinosa Maconochie, 1978 (Jour. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 1: 177)
Distinguished by the apex of the megasporophyll 95-190 x 18-40 mm with a terminal spine 10-45 mm long and peg teeth 5-12 mm long.  The leaves are strongly keeled and the revolute pinnae 11-20 cm x 2.5-4 mm, often glaucous.  Mostly near and crossing into Northern Territory. 

Cycas calcicola Macanochie, 1978 (Jour. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 1: 175)
Distinguished by the apex of the megasporophyll 20-30 x 15-20 mm with a terminal spine 6-16 mm long and peg teeth 2-4 mm long.  The leaves are flat and the revolute pinnae 5-14 cm x 2.5-4 mm, brown tomentose on the underside.  Located in the northwestern part of Northern Territory.