Cycad: Lebomboensis up close

Cycad: Encephalartos Lebomboensis

The Encephalartos Lebomboensis is a cycad that grows in the Lebombo Mountains in South Africa and Swaziland. It is also known as the "Piet Retief cycad, as it grows near the town of "Piet Retief" in South Africa. It is part of the family Zamiaceae. The Lebomboensis can become up to 4 meters tall and 30 centimeters thick. These plants consist of male and female plants.

The plant above is a female plant with ripe seeds that are falling off from the cone. The difference between male and female plants can be seen in the cone, where the male cones are thinner and taller (45 cm tall and 12 cm wide, while the female cones are shorter and thicker (40 cm tall and 30 cm wide).

Insects and wind move the pollen from the male cone to the female cone.

The photo below shows new leaves growing. Normally a cycad only gets new leaves once a year, but they can also skip a year or two.

The photo below shows the entire plant, showing the position of the new leaves and cones.

The female cone up close.

The seeds up close.

The seeds lying under the cycad, note the seedlings growing from previous years seeds.

A seed that I broke open.

Dried seeds.

A leave close up, those thorns are really sharp and you need to be real careful when removing dead leaves!!

The photo below is a male cone, which I copied from the internet as indicated by the link.

Image Credit

All the photos above, except where indicated differently, were taken by myself with my iPhone. This particular plant grows in my parent's garden, in Pretoria South Africa.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.