Encephalartos ferox
Encephalartos ferox
Encephalartos ferox is a representative of cycads ( Cycadales ) and belongs to the genus of bread cycads ( Encephalartos ).
Features
The stems are underground or tree structure, usually solitary, rarely with Wurzelschösslingen at the stem base. The crown sheet is usually located at ground level, the growing stem is pulled by contractile roots into the ground. Rarely an aboveground stem forms of one to two meters in height and 30 to 35 cm diameter.
The leaves are numerous, shiny dark green. You are one to two feet long, 30 to 36 cm wide, straight or slightly arched. Young leaves are densely hairy, mature but bare. The petiole is 9-24 cm long. The leaflets are occupied on the edge with two to four small to large teeth and end up at the top in three to five sharp lobes.
The female cones are individually or up to three, even up to fifth in very old specimens. They are ovate, 25-50 cm long and 20-40 cm in diameter. The color ranges from (rarely ) yellow to orange to bright red. The stem is very short, so that the pin appears sitting. The lying on the journal surface side of the sporophyll is 15 to 18 mm high and 38 to 42 mm wide; it is wrinkly and ends in a sharp beak. The sarcotesta the seed to maturity is bright red, ovoid, 44-50 mm long, 15-20 mm in diameter and smooth.
The male cones are individually up to three, up to tenth in large plants. They are approximately cylindrical, and 40 to 50 cm long with a diameter of 7 to 10 cm. The color is (rarely ) to pink or scarlet yellow. The stem is 10 to 15 cm long. The lying on the journal surface side of the sporophyll is 9 to 12 mm high and 20 to 22 mm wide.
Dissemination and locations
The species occurs in southern Africa from Zululand and the North East of KwaZulu -Natal to the Sordwana Bay, about 650 kilometers north of Maputo, Mozambique, before.
It grows in coastal thickets on stable sand dunes, but also further inland, then in the shadow of higher vegetation. The climate is hot and humid, frost-free, with annual rainfall of 1000-1250 mm, falling mainly in summer.
Deforestation in South Africa and growing population pressures have led to a decrease in proliferation.
Use
In the past, starch was recovered from the pith of the stem. The type is one of the most common cycads in botanic gardens and other collections. The reasons lie in the easy care and in its colorful cones.
Botanical history
Was discovered in the way the Italian plant collector Carlo Antonio Fornasini. The first description was in 1851 by Giuseppe Bertolini; the Art epithet means wild and plays on the very thorny Blattfiederchen to. A (invalid ) synonym for the species is kosiensis Encephalartos. 1932 John Hutchinson had the kind described in terms of plants in Durban again, without knowing the description of E. ferox.
Documents
- Loran M. Whitelock: The Cycads. Timber Press, Portland, OR 2002, ISBN 0-88192-522-5, pp. 193 f