Encephalartos laurentianus

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 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.[3][4][5] This is also said to be the fastest growing cycad, producing up to five "flushes" (rosettes, or clusters) of leaves each year.[6] The species was discovered in 1902 by Louis Gentil.

Encephalartos laurentianus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Gymnosperms
Division: Cycadophyta
Class: Cycadopsida
Order: Cycadales
Family: Zamiaceae
Genus: Encephalartos
Species:
E. laurentianus
Binomial name
Encephalartos laurentianus

References
  1. "Encephalartos laurentianus in Tropicos".
  2. "Encephalartos laurentianus Plants - Encephalartos Species".
  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.
  6. <not stated>. "E. laurentianus". Retrieved July 15, 2014.


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