 The species is named after its dichotomously divided leaflets, a character shared with a few other related species.It has been extensively confused in literature with the related species "Cycas multifrondis" and "Cycas micholitzii" (K. D. Hill, Cycad Pages); in the "Flora of China", it is treated as "Cycas micholitzii", a species restricted by Hill to plants from central Vietnam and Laos.