''Encephalartos longifolius'' is a low-growing

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (b ...

-like

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or f ...

in the family

Zamiaceae The Zamiaceae are a family of cycads that are superficially palm or fern-like. They are divided into two subfamilies with eight genera and about 150 species in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Australia and North and South Americ ...

. It is endemic to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

and is commonly known as Thunberg's cycad, breadpalm or broodboom.Palmer, E. and Pitman, N. ''Trees of southern Africa, covering all known indigenous species in the Republic of South Africa, South-West Africa, Botswana, Lesotho & Swaziland''. Cape Town (1972). This cycad is listed as near threatened in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Description

left, ''E. longifolius'' growing at the Orto botanico di Palermo left, The male cone The breadpalm grows up to three metres tall and develops a very thick trunk with age. This is crowned with dark or metallic green, semi-glossy, arching leaves up to two metres long and moderately keeled. The leaflets are lanceolate, overlapping upwards and have smooth margins. There are one to three green, ovoid male cones up to sixty centimetres long and twenty centimetres in diameter. A similar number of green female cones are more robust with a diameter of up to forty centimetres. The seeds are red and can reach five centimetres long.

Distribution

This species is found in coastal regions of

Eastern Cape Province The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in 19 ...

growing at heights of up to six hundred metres. It grows in a variety of different habitats on the mountain ridges from west of

Joubertina Joubertina is a small town in the Kou-Kamma Local Municipality, Sarah Baartman District of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Description Town on the Wabooms River in the Langkloof, some 50 km north-west of Assegaaibos, 70 ...

in the Kouga mountains east to near

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana Loc ...

. There are a large number of locations where breadpalms grow but on the whole, populations are declining.

Historical note

In their book on South African trees, published in 1972,

Eve Palmer Evelyn Mary "Eve" Palmer (20 February 1916 – 1998) was a South African writer and botanist. She was married to the South African journalist and adventure novelist Geoffrey Jenkins. Her best known work is her bestselling 1966 non-fiction book ...

and Norah Pitman wrote:

References

External links

* *
The Gymnosperm Database.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3724985 longifolius Trees of South Africa