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Encephalartos laurentianus

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Species of cycad

Encephalartos laurentianus
Conservation status

Near Threatened  (IUCN 3.1)
CITES Appendix I (CITES)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Gymnospermae
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.

Description

It is the largest of all cycads, with multiple stems both upright and prostrate, each as much as sixty feet (18 meters) in length, 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 three inches (7.6 cm) thick where it joins the stem or trunk. Each stem can be up to four feet (120 cm) in thickness. This is also said to be the fastest growing cycad, producing up to five "flushes" (rosettes, or clusters) of leaves each year. The species was discovered in 1902 by Louis Gentil.

References

  1. "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  2. "Encephalartos laurentianus in Tropicos".
  3. "Encephalartos laurentianus Plants - Encephalartos Species".
  4. ANNALES DU MUSEE DU CONGO Series 6 FLORE Vol. 1 (1904) p. 10.
  5. KEW BULLETIN Vol. 12 # 2 (1957) pp. 248-249.
  6. Douglas Goode, CYCADS OF AFRICA (Cape Town: Struik-Winchester, 1989) p. 240.
  7. <not stated>. "E. laurentianus". Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  8. Gardener's Chronicle Volume 35 (3rd series) (June 11, 1904) p. 370.

External links

Taxon identifiers
Encephalartos laurentianus


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