Encephalartos laurentianus

Encephalartos laurentianus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Division:Cycadophyta
Class:Cycadopsida
Order:Cycadales
Family:Zamiaceae
Genus:Encephalartos
Species: E. laurentianus
Binomial name
Encephalartos laurentianus
De Wild.

Encephalartos laurentianus, commonly called the malele or Kwango giant cycad, is a species of cycad that is native to northern Angola and southern Congo (Zaire), mostly along the Kwango River.[1] It is the largest of all cycads, with multiple stems both upright and prostrate, each as much as sixty feet (18 meters) in length,[2] and bearing a rosette of massive once-pinnate fronds up to 25 feet (eight meters) in length, forty inches (100 cm) in width, and with a petiole or stalk up to eight inches (20 cm) thick where it joins the stem or trunk. Each stem can be up to four feet (120 cm) in thickness.[3][4][5]

References

  1. ↑ "Encephalartos laurentianus in Tropicos".
  2. ↑ http://www.cycadpalm.com/enlaplkwgicy.html
  3. ↑ ANNALES DU MUSEE DU CONGO Series 6 FLORE Vol. 1 (1904) p. 10.
  4. ↑ KEW BULLETIN Vol. 12 # 2 (1957) pp. 248-249.
  5. ↑ Douglas Goode, CYCADS OF AFRICA (Cape Town: Struik-Winchester, 1989) p. 240.


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