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| Photo Ken Hill
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| The Cycad Pages
| | Encephalartos caffer
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- Encephalartos caffer (Thunb.) Lehm., Pugill. 6: 14 (1834). BAS
Cycas caffra Thunb., Nov. Acta Soc. Sc. (Uppsal.) 2: 286, t. 5 (1775). t. 5
- Zamia caffra Gaertn., Fruct. Sem. Pl. 1: 15, t. 3 (1800).
- TYPE: the illustration t. 5.
Encephalartos brachyphyllus Lehm. & De Vriese, in Hoeven & De Vriese, Tijdschr. Natuurl. Gesch. Physiol. 4: 414, tt. 6 & 7 (1837-8). ?tt. 6-7
- Encephalartos caffer var. brachyphyllus A. DC., Prodr. 16(2): 532 (1868).
- TYPE: the plates tt. 6 & 7 OR hort. Hamburg.
Encephalartos caffer var. integrifolius Regel, Trudy Imp. S.-Petersburgsk. Bot. Sada 3: 113 (1873).
- TYPE: none cited.
Encephalartos caffer var. unidentatus Regel, Trudy Imp. S.-Petersburgsk. Bot. Sada 3: 113 (1873).
- TYPE: none cited.
Encephalartos cycadis Sweet, Hort. Brit. ed. 3: 626 (1839).
- TYPE: based on Thunb. Act. Ups. 2 t. 6.
Encephalartos elliptica Lodd. ex Miq., Linnaea 17: 723 (1843).
- TYPE: ?
Zamia crassifolia hort. Williams ex T. Moore, Florist & Pomol., 1877:14, fig. s.n. (p.15) (1877).
- TYPE: the illustration: fig. s.n. (p. 15).
- [Cycas afra hort. ex J. Schust., Pflanzenr. 99: 111 (1932), nom. nud.]
- [Cycas villosa Herb. van Royen ex A. DC., Prodr. 16(2): 532 (1868), nom. nud.]
- [Encephalartos caffrorum hort. Scion ex Yates, Proc. Linn. Soc. II 19 (1894), nom. nud.]
- [Encephalartos crassifolius hort. ex J. Schust., Pflanzenr. 4(1): 109 (1932), nom. nud.]
- [Encephalartos royenii hort. ex J. Schust., Pflanzenr. 4(1): 109 (1932), nom. nud.]
- [Zamia cycadifolia Lodd. Cat. 175 ex Miq., Linnaea 17: 719 (1843), nom. nud.]
- [Zamia cycadis L. f., Suppl. Pl.: 443 (1782), nom. nud.] ?
- [Zamia elegans hort. ex Yates, Proc. Linn. Soc. 2: 18, 19 (1849), nom. nud.]
- [Zamia elliptica Lodd. Cat. 173 ex Miq., Linnaea 17: 723 (1843), nom. nud.]
- [Zamia villosa Herb. Van Royen ex A. DC., Prodr. 16(2): 546 (1848), nom. nud.]
Etymology:
From the Caffrara region of eastern Cape Province.
Literature:
Illustrations:
Vernacular:
Historical notes:
Described as a species of Zamia in 1775 by Swedish botanist
Thunberg.
Distinguishing features:
The dwarf, subterranean habit with few stiffly erect leaves in the crown
place this species with E. ngoyanus, E. cerinus and E.
umbeluziensis. I is distingiushed within this group by the short, dark
green leaves with a spine-free petiole and entire, crowded, irregularly
overlapping leaflets, and the woolly crown. Emerging leaflets are dull and
densely tomentose, whereas those of E. ngoyanus are glossy and
spersely hairy.
Distribution and habitat:
Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, and Transkei, in grassland.
Conservation:
1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants
category V.
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| Photo Ken Hill
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Description:
Plants acaulescent; stem 0.3-0.4 m tall, 20-25 cm diam.
Leaves 50-100 cm long, dark green, semiglossy, slightly keeled
(opposing leaflets inserted at 120-150° on rachis); rachis green,
straight, stiff, not spirally twisted or slightly twisted in some leaves;
petiole straight, with no prickles; leaf-base collar not present; basal leaflets
reducing to spines.
Leaflets lanceolate, weakly discolorous, overlapping upwards, not
lobed, insertion angle horizontal; margins flat; upper margin entire (no teeth);
lower margin entire (no teeth); median leaflets 8-10 cm long, 10 mm wide.
Pollen cones 1, narrowly ovoid, yellow, 20-30 cm long, 7-12 cm diam.
Seed cones 1, ovoid, yellow, 30 cm long, 15 cm diam.
Seeds oblong, sarcotesta red.
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