Africa Cycads

E. brevifoliolatus
Escarpment Cycad

Encephalartos brevifoliolatus, the escarpment cycad, is extinct in the wild and survives only in collections. This is a strictly protected plant, one of the rarest in the world. It was found in South Africa in short grasslands in the very open Protea savanna. These plants were used to growing on large cliffs.

The stems of Encephalartos brevifoliolatus are well developed, usually unbranched but often suckering from the base to form clumps of up to 6 stems. The stem is erect but often leaning to some extent or even hanging from cliffs. Stems are up to 2.5m tall and 250mm to 300mm thick and covered by relatively small remains of leaf bases which are often charred from fires in its grassland habitat. The crown is not woolly but cataphylls (bracts) are initially covered by a thin, whitish, felt-like indumentum.

The leaves are 800mm to 900mm long, rigid and straight or very slightly recurved near their apices. The petioles are unarmed, half-cylindrical and initially has a whitish felt-like indumentum but are hairless at maturity. Colour is yellowish and they are 90mm to 200mm long and 7mm to 10mm thick. The rachis is also yellowish.

The basal pinnae are very slightly reduced in size but not to prickles. The median pinnae overlap with upper margins over the lower margin of the adjoining leaflets, spaced 8mm to 10mm apart and directed towards the apex of the leaf at an angle of about 45°. Opposing leaflets are set at an angle of about 135° to each other. Colour is dark green and they are shaped very narrowly ovate and somewhat sickle-shaped, with margins entire and recurved and apices acute and pungent. The lower surface is finely ribbed with (12) 14 to 16 veins. The median leaflets are 60mm to 80mm long and 10mm to 12mm wide.

Up to 6 male cones were seen per stem. They are sessile, very narrowly egg-shaped and covered in minute and very short whitish felt-like hairs. It is about 350mm long and 60mm to 70mm in diameter in the dried state. The exposed faces of median microsporophylls (cone scales) are rhombic, about 22mm wide and 5mm high, and drawn out to a length of about 6mm to the central facet. The central facet is rhombic, smooth, 7mm to 9mm wide and 3mm to 5mm wide. The female cones are unknown.

Cultivation:


full sun	dark green	low watering	slow growth	frost-hardy	unobtainable

Very little is known about the cultivation of E.brevifoliolatus because it is so rare. None the less it is represented in at least one, possibly two, collections. It should be grown in full sun and the normal requirements for cycads should be adhered to. Since female cones are not known, this species can only be propagated by removing suckers from the base.

Available E. brevifoliolatus at Africa Cycads: