Encephalartos lebomboensis
Encephalartos lebomboensis
Encephalartos lebomboensis is a representative of cycads ( Cycadales ) and belongs to the genus of bread cycads ( Encephalartos ). The species is named after the Lebombo Mountains, from where it was first described.
Features
The strains are rarely branched, often at the base of suckers. They grow to 4 feet tall and 25 to 30 cm wide. The crown is often slightly woolly. The Cataphylle are densely hairy on the underside, bald on top, long triangular, about 4 cm long and 1 cm wide at the base.
Numerous leaves are spread out which color ranges from light to deep green and is at the bottom usually brighter. The leaves are 1 to 1.5 meters long, 20 to 27 cm wide, straight, sometimes slightly curved back and down, flat or slightly keeled, more or less. The young leaves are densely pubescent, but soon glabrous. The petiole is 3 to 10 cm long. The rachis is green-gold. The basal leaves are reduced to spines standing. The middle leaves are 12-18 cm long, lanceolate and 12-22 mm wide. They are from a right angle and overlap. The leaf margin is thickened and usually staffed with one to four spines.
The female cones are solitary, rarely in pairs. They are upright, an up - barrel-shaped, 40 to 45 cm long and 20-25 cm in diameter. The color is green yellow. The stem is very short, so that the pin appears sitting. The sporophylls are 5.5 to 6 cm long. The lying on the journal surface side of the sporophyll is 35 to 45 mm high, 45-55 mm wide, flat and smooth, greenish yellow to pale cream color. The sarcotesta the seed is matured scarlet. The Sklerotesta is 26 to 30 mm long, 18 to 20 mm in diameter, light brown and smooth, with the exception of 11 to 14 distinct longitudinal ribs.
The male cones are solitary, rarely in pairs. They are cylindrical, and 40 to 45 cm long with a diameter of 10 to 13 cm. The color is apricot- yellow to pale yellow. The stem is 1 to 3 cm long and 3-4 cm wide; the journal appears mostly sitting. The sporophylls are 3 to 3.5 cm long. The lying on the journal surface side of the sporophyll is 15 mm high and 35 to 40 mm wide; she rises pyramidal 1 to 1.5 cm high. In the upper pivot area they are slightly hairy brown. The sporangia are in a spot on the underside, with a recess on the outside.
Dissemination and locations
The species occurs in South Africa, Mpumalanga Province in Pongola Valley and in the upper catchment area of the rivers Pongola and Pivaan. In Swaziland, it grows in the north of Siteki in the area of Kangwane. It grows on steep, rocky slopes in sparse vegetation. The regions have 625-750 mm of rainfall, which falls mostly in the summer, hot summers, cool winters with frequent fog annually.
Since there are only two of this kind is not very large populations, it is classified as endangered.
Botanical history and systematics
The closest related species Encephalartos altensteinii and Encephalartos natalensis. That there could be a separate species, was already suspected in the 1920s. Field studies confirmed these assumptions, and in 1949 the kind of Inez Clare Verdoorn was first described. In the 1990s, it was found that the type specimen to a particular, have long known form, which belongs Piet Retief - form and its own kind of forms. Thus, the growing in the eponymous Lebombo Mountains populations had to be described as a new species and hot since 1996 Encephalartos senticosus.
Documents
- Loran M. Whitelock: The Cycads. Timber Press, Portland, OR 2002, ISBN 0-88192-522-5, pp. 212 f