Encephalartos aplanatus

Encephalartos aplanatus is a species of cycad in Swaziland.

Encephalartos aplanatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: Cycadophyta
Class: Cycadopsida
Order: Cycadales
Family: Zamiaceae
Genus: Encephalartos
Species:
E. aplanatus
Binomial name
Encephalartos aplanatus
Vorster

Description

It is an acaule plant. Each plant has 2-8 leaves 350 cm long, dark green in color, erect when young, while as they age they tend to assume a horizontal position. The leaflets, 30 cm long and lanceolate, have toothed margins and are inserted on the rachis in the opposite way at an angle of 150-180º. The petiole is equipped with small spines.

It is a dioecious species, with spindle-shaped male cones, yellow in color, 60 cm long and 8–10 cm broad. The female cones, of the same color, have an ovoid shape, are 40 cm long and have a diameter of 12 cm. Both appear in January, in the middle of summer in the northern hemisphere. Both macrosporophylls and microsporophylls have a flat, smooth and glabrous surface.

The seeds are 25 mm long and are covered with a red flesh.[1]

References
  1. "Encephalartos aplanatus". PlantNET Home Page - National Herbarium of New South Wales. Retrieved 2019-09-17.


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