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| Photo Ken Hill
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| The Cycad Pages
| | Encephalartos concinnus
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- Encephalartos concinnus R.A. Dyer & I. Verd., Kirkia 7: 147-158 (1969). H—PRE
- TYPE: Rhodesia, Belingwe District, few miles S of Belingwe, Smit PRE 30142 (holo PRE).
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| Photo Ken Hill
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Etymology:
latin concinnus, neat or trim, from the compact and attractive habit.
Literature:
Illustrations:
Vernacular:
Historical notes:
Described in 1969 by South African botanists
R.
Allen Dyer and
Inez Verdoon, who separated the
previously broadly defined E. manikensis into a number of segregates,
primarily on differences in pollen cone morphology (see also E.
munchii, E. pterogonus and E. chimanimaniensis).
Distinguishing features:
A member of the E. manikensis complex, a group of robust cycads from
the region of the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border with stout erect trunks of
medium height, leaves with short petioles and numerous reduced spine-like
leaflets, median leaflets with 1-6 spines on each margin, green cones and
red seed-coats.
Distribution and habitat:
Scattered and sporadic, in small populations in southern Zimbabwe, in
woodland or grassland on cliffs and rocky hills.
Conservation:
1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants
category E.
Description:
Plants arborescent; stem 3 m tall, 45 cm diam.
Leaves 150-200 cm long, light or bright green, semiglossy, flat (not
keeled) in section (opposing leaflets inserted at 180° on rachis);
straight, stiff, not spirally twisted; petiole straight, with 1-6 prickles;
leaf-base collar not present; basal leaflets reducing to spines.
Leaflets lanceolate, weakly discolorous, not overlapping, not lobed,
insertion angle obtuse (45-80°); margins flat; upper margin lightly
toothed (1-3 teeth); lower margin lightly toothed (1-3 teeth); median leaflets
10-15 cm long, 20-25 mm wide.
Pollen cones 1-4, fusiform, green, 30-50 cm long, 7-10 cm diam.
Seed cones 1-2, ovoid, green, 35-45 cm long, 15-20 cm diam.
Seeds oblong, 30-35 mm long, 18-23 mm wide, sarcotesta red.