Saturday 15 June Eastern Cape dwarf cycad (Encephalartos caffer)
Eastern Cape dwarf cycad fact file - Find out more - Print
factsheet Eastern Cape dwarf cycad description This rare plant
typically has an underground stem, with a small portion on top,
the stem is only very rarely branched and may be as much as 40
cm long (2). Emerging from the top are long, pinnate, dark green
leaves up to a metre long. These often have a distinctive
ruffled, feathery appearance, caused by the numerous, clustered
leaflets being irregularly twisted from the central stalk and
pointing out in different directions (2) (4). New leaves are
brown and woolly at first but most of the hair is lost as they
mature, although they never become completely smooth or glossy.
Both male and female plants bear single reproductive cones made
up of a series of spiraled scales, which become greenish-yellow
when mature. In the female, two largish, glossy, scarlet-
coloured seeds are formed on top of each cone scale (2). - Stem
length: up to 40 cm (2)