Encephalartos horridus
Encephalartos horridus
Encephalartos horridus is a representative of cycads ( Cycadales ) and belongs to the genus of bread cycads ( Encephalartos ).
Features
The strains usually grow underground, are unbranched, forming at the base, however, many offshoots, so that large trunk groups are formed. Rarely, the stem grows above ground and is up to 1.5 meters high with a diameter of 20 to 30 cm. The crown is always sparsely hairy woolly. The many leaves are erect, stiff, 0.5 to 1 m long, 10-15 cm wide and bent sharply backwards and downwards. Young leaves are silvery - blue; the coloration is caused by a layer of wax, which weathered with time, so that old leaves are dull green. The petiole is 12 to 15 cm long and has a widened, light brown base. The lower leaflets are reduced more and more towards base; the lowest consist only of a mandrel. The middle leaflets are 10-13 cm long and 2.5 to 30 cm wide; leaflets each consisting of two to three distinct lobes, which are rotated out of the plane of the sheet. The leaf margins are sharply bent. The tips of the leaves and the leaf edge are covered with stiff, sharp spines.
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 mean Sporophylle are 5-6 cm long. The lying on the journal surface side of the sporophyll is 3 to 3.5 cm high, 4 to 4.5 cm wide and has a rough, pockige surface. The sarcotesta the seed is matured in pale red to carmine. The Sklerotesta ovoid, 25 to 28 mm long, 15 to 18 mm in diameter, often triangular in cross -section, with a smooth, light-brown surface.
The male cones are solitary, rarely in pairs. They are approximately cylindrical, and 20 to 40 cm long with a diameter of 6 to 12 cm. The basic color is blue-green with a black to reddish-brown dense hair. The stem is 40 to 45 mm long with a diameter of 21 mm to 26 mm; it is equal colored and hairy as the pin. The sporophylls are 3.5 to 4 cm long. The lying on the journal surface side of the sporophyll is 15 to 18 mm high and 35 to 40 mm wide and ends in a one cm long beak. The surface is brown to black - red. The sporangia are in a single spot.
The species is very variable, particularly in regard to the blades.
Dissemination and locations
The species is native to South Africa; their deposits are located in the Eastern Cape Province in the districts of Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage. It grows in the Karoo bush, even in Addo and Uitenhage -Busch in dry, desert-like areas together with succulent euphorbias and Strelitzia juncea. The precipitation is from 250 to 600 mm, evenly distributed throughout the year. The climate is temperat with little frost in the winter and summer temperatures up to 40 ° C.
Ecology
The reproduction of the species to the natural site is slow. One of the reasons is the weevil Antliarhinus zamiae, whose larvae feed on the endosperm of the seeds. In combination with habitat loss, illegal collecting and grazing by goats and porcupines the species is endangered today.
Use
Due to the eye-catching leaves and ease of posture is often the kind cultivated as an ornamental plant. Illegal trade in Wildaufsammlungen represent a major threat to the livestock population; whereas
Documents
- Loran M. Whitelock: The Cycads. Timber Press, Portland, OR 2002, ISBN 0-88192-522-5, pp. 201 f