Africa Wild

That's a nice one

Toko wrote: Love the stone tag.

Another lovely cycad

That was taken at Exclusive Cycads, a cycad nursery in Pretoria, and they have labelled the cycads this way. I also think it is a brilliant idea
They have kindly allowed me to take photos for this project

E. cerinus

Description

Encephalartos cerinus is a dwarf plant with a subterranean stem which may be partly exposed if growing in a rock crevice. Mature stems are 300mm long and 200mm to 250mm in diameter. It suckers or branches sparingly from the base.

E. cerinus has eight to ten leaves, 0.9m to 1.2m long with the median leaflets 13mm to 15mm long and 10mm to 12mm broad. The leaves are held almost vertical to the crown. The petiole or leaf stalk is 120mm to 180mm long and bare.

The pinnae are entire with occasionally one to two teeth on the lower margin of juvenile or seedling leaflets. The leaflets overlap from the middle of the leaf towards the top. The leaflets are blue green in colour and quite distinctive with a thick waxy covering. This covering leaves a very distinctive smell when rubbed. The latter fact gave rise to the specific epithet "cerinus" meaning waxy.

The cones of both sexes are solitary, although males in cultivation occasionally produce two or three together. The cones are blue green in colour, turning yellow at maturity. The cones likewise are covered with the thick waxy bloom so characteristic of this species. Male cones are 550mm to 600mm long and 80mm to 100mm in diameter. The median cone scales have a flattened terminal facet. The male cones are borne on an 80mm peduncle. The female cones are egg shaped, 300mm to 350mm long and 150mm to 180mm in diameter. The face of the female cone scales is smooth with a fringed lower edge. Seeds are 25mm long and 15mm in diameter and he sarcotesta is deep red.





Distribution & Habitat

E. cerinus is restricted to a single rocky gorge in the Tugela Ferry area of KwaZulu-Natal at an altitude of 900m. The locality is both hot and dry. Plants were scattered along an almost vertical rock face.

E. cerinus has been known to collectors for almost 20 years but it was only described in 1989. Credit for the discovery of this species must go to Reinwald Dedekind who saw it growing at an African kraal and recognized that it was different to the other cycads in the area and that it was possibly a new species of Encephalartos. The original locality where the plants grew, was on a sheer sandstone cliff above a river in the Tugela Ferry area of KwaZulu-Natal. Less than a dozen plants were growing at this locality and for several years this was the only known locality. Extensive searches by botanists and cycad collectors failed to locate more plants until in 1987 a large thriving colony was discovered a few kilometers away from the original site. Substantial numbers of mature coning plants, juvenile as well as seedling plants, were found growing among rock crevices and boulders in a rocky ravine. Regrettably the news soon spread and the entire colony has since been wiped out by unscrupulous collectors.

Recent field work indicates that with the exception of a few plants growing on an inaccessibly rock face there are no plants left in the wild. The conservation status of E. cerinus is presently given by the conservation authorities as PE, "possibly extinct", which is a bitter indictment of the avarice of cycad collectors.

In less than 20 years a new species has been collected to extinction in the wild. Given that no permission has ever been given for a single plant to be removed from the wild, all wild collected mature specimens in cultivation are illegal. The original plants from this gene pool are now scattered throughout private collections. Due to the exorbitant prices asked on the Black Market, few collectors own more than one mature plant and the production of pure viable seed is unlikely as a means of conserving the species. Likewise the presence of other species coning at the same time in the garden or neighbouring gardens, increases the likelihood of hybridization. Ex situ conservation is in many cases merely the preservation of a specimen but is not a viable option for the conservation of a species and habitat protection alone will ensure the survival of a species.

Looks like the one at the swimming pool

Why can't people be happy with something that is not prohibited and can be bought at a nursery there are hundreds of wonderful plants to be found

Odd thing with an underground stem

E. cupidus

Encephalartos cupidus has well developed stems, up to 400mm long and procumbent, but usually subterranean, suckering and 200mm to 300mm in diameter.



The leaves are up to 1m long, with mature leaves spreading and often touching the ground, or intertwined in multi-headed plants, leaf tips arching upwards. The leaves are a glaucous bluish-green to venetian blue, turning yellowish-khaki with age.

Leaflets are inserted in a distinct V-disposition on the rachis and reduced to prickles on the lower petiole. Median leaflets are up to 150mm long and 20mm broad and are strongly armed with 4-6 spines on both margins.

The male cones are green, usually single, subcylindrical, 200mm to 300mm long and 50mm in diameter with a peduncle 50mm to 100mm long. The adaxial surface of the male sporophylls bears a slight median ridge with the terminal facet of the sporophyll glabrous in the centre. Female cones are green, turning apricot at maturity or staying green in shaded plants. They are usually solitary and occur rarely in pairs. The female cones are up to 300mm long and 200mm in diameter with a peduncle up to 60mm long. The terminal facet of the sporophyll is smooth to slightly warty. Seeds are ellipsoid and the sarcotesta is yellow to apricot.



Distribution and Habitat

E. cupidus used to occur within a restricted area of the eastern Transvaal Drakensberg escarpment area, between the Blyde and Steelpoort Rivers. At present populations appear to be confined to the Blyde River Nature Reserve, with some isolated plants sporadically being found further north between the Ohrigstad and Olifants Rivers. Populations are small, up to 200 individuals in the Blyde River Nature Reserve. Plants grow in inaccessible spots on precipitous promontories and on boulder-strewn grassland or typical Bankenveld and sometimes along seepage areas bordering gallery forest as well as in dry forest. It appears as if dolomites are preferred as substrate, but plants are also found on Black Reef quartzite of the Wolkberg group.

Droughts and fires are frequent, causing a high mortality rate amongst seedlings. Recruitment is poor, although individuals from all age classes are present within the larger populations. The leaves of E. cupidus are frequently attacked by larvae of the leopard magpie moth.

E. cycadifolius

The maximum height of the stem of E. cycadifolius is approximately 1,5m but more commonly less than 1m, with a diameter of approximately 25cm. In nature up to two thirds of the stem may be covered by soil. Numerous basal suckers are formed to create clusters of up to 10 or more stems from the same rootstock. Damage to the crown of the stem sometimes results in multi-headed stems.





The dark olive-green leaves are 60cm to 1m long, with bare petioles of 10cm to 20cm long. The leaf stalk is usually slightly spiraled, giving the leaf a characteristic twist. The leaf stalks, especially the older ones, are yellow to orange in colour. The whole leaf is covered by fine white wool when young, but these are lost with age. The leaf stalk of dead leaves remains on the plant for many months and hang around the stem.



The median pinnae are 9cm to 13cm long and 4mm to 6mm broad. The leaflets have smooth, thickened edges and no thorns and are attached to the rachis in the form of a wide V, with no or very little overlapping. The leaflets are reduced in size towards the base and the tip of the leaf.

One or two cones on short stalks are formed in male and female plants. The yellow cones are covered with a thick layer of greyish white hair, which becomes brown with age. In multi-stemmed plants, only one or two of the stems will form cones at the same time. The male cone is more or less cylindrical in shape, 13cm to 22cm long and 5cm to 8cm in diameter. The nose of the cone scale projects only slightly. The median cone scales are approximately 2cm long and 1,8cm broad. The more or less barrel-shaped female cone is 20cm to 30cm long and 16cm to 18cm in diameter. The median cone scales are 4mm to 4,5mm long and 4mm broad, with a flattened face. The seeds are orange-yellow through orange to amber-brown in colour.



Distribution and Habitat

E. cycadifolius has a restricted and narrow distribution range which includes a few areas on the Winterberg mountain range in the districts of Bedford and Cradock.

Plants grow on mountainsides, usually on exposed northern and eastern slopes, at altitudes of up to 1800m. Winter temperatures drop to -6 °C and lower, and snow and frost occur frequently. In this respect, the species share a similar habitat with other species with narrow leaflets such as E. friderici-guilielmi and E. ghellinckii. Rain falls in summer, at an average of 625mm and 800mm per year. Lengthy periods of drought are not uncommon, however, plants are often hidden away in the grass and many grow in-between rocks, which offer them shade and protection against cold, fire and porcupines. The blackened stems of older plants attest to the occurrence of veld fires, to which the species is well adapted. There are strong indications that fire serves as a stimulus for leaf and cone development. In Bothalia, Vol. 8, part 4 of 1965, Dr Dyer recounts the observations of Mr. V.L. Pringle, who noticed that E. cycadifolius plants formed new leaves soon after a veld fire and were "looking better than ever before". Mr. Pringle continues: "There is scarcely one in hundreds which has not fruited."

Today I saw a documentary on New Zealand and there were quite a few cycads all over the place. If it had not been for your posts I would not even have noticed them or would have taken them for some sort of palms

Thanks for all the info Sharifa!

there is Cycads in the South of France, "Côte d'azur" and Monaco... it's why I was thinking you had some in Ticino.
We had, my brother and me one, I don't know which one (for me there was only one ), in the appartment, and I think we kept it 3-4 years... then not enough humidity in the air

thanks Sharifa, very interresting