Description
Encephalartos cerinus is a
dwarf plant with a subterranean stem which may be partly exposed
if growing in a rock crevice. Mature stems are 300mm long and
200mm to 250mm in diameter. It suckers or branches sparingly
from the base.
E. cerinus has eight to
ten leaves, 0.9m to 1.2m long with the median leaflets 13mm to
15mm long and 10mm to 12mm broad. The leaves are held almost
vertical to the crown. The petiole or leaf stalk is 120mm to
180mm long and bare.
The pinnae are entire with
occasionally one to two teeth on the lower margin of juvenile or
seedling leaflets. The leaflets overlap from the middle of the
leaf towards the top. The leaflets are blue green in colour and
quite distinctive with a thick waxy covering. This covering
leaves a very distinctive smell when rubbed. The latter fact
gave rise to the specific epithet "cerinus" meaning waxy.
The cones of both sexes are
solitary, although males in cultivation occasionally produce two
or three together. The cones are blue green in colour, turning
yellow at maturity. The cones likewise are covered with the
thick waxy bloom so characteristic of this species. Male cones
are 550mm to 600mm long and 80mm to 100mm in diameter. The
median cone scales have a flattened terminal facet. The male
cones are borne on an 80mm peduncle. The female cones are egg
shaped, 300mm to 350mm long and 150mm to 180mm in diameter. The
face of the female cone scales is smooth with a fringed lower
edge. Seeds are 25mm long and 15mm in diameter and he sarcotesta
is deep red.
![]()
Female cone |
![]()
Male cones |
![]()
Seeds |
![]()
Leaf detail |
Distribution & Habitat
E. cerinus is restricted to a single rocky
gorge in the Tugela Ferry area of KwaZulu-Natal at an altitude of 900m. The
locality is both hot and dry. Plants were scattered along an almost vertical
rock face.
Cultivation & Propagation
The fact that the species occurs mainly on sheer
rock faces and steep rocky slopes means that good drainage and full sun are the
prime cultural requirements. The leaf colour of plants in cultivation that
have been grown in semi shade is green rather than blue. This species is
easy to cultivate from seed.
Notes
E. cerinus has been
known to collectors for almost 20 years but it was only
described in 1989. Credit for the discovery of this species must
go to Reinwald Dedekind who saw it growing at an African kraal
and recognized that it was different to the other cycads in the
area and that it was possibly a new species of Encephalartos.
The original locality where the plants grew, was on a sheer
sandstone cliff above a river in the Tugela Ferry area of
KwaZulu-Natal. Less than a dozen plants were growing at this
locality and for several years this was the only known locality.
Extensive searches by botanists and cycad collectors failed to
locate more plants until in 1987 a large thriving colony was
discovered a few kilometers away from the original site.
Substantial numbers of mature coning plants, juvenile as well as
seedling plants, were found growing among rock crevices and
boulders in a rocky ravine. Regrettably the news soon spread and
the entire colony has since been wiped out by unscrupulous
collectors.
Recent field work indicates that
with the exception of a few plants growing on an inaccessibly
rock face there are no plants left in the wild. The conservation
status of E. cerinus is presently given by the
conservation authorities as PE, "possibly extinct", which is a
bitter indictment of the avarice of cycad collectors. In less
than 20 years a new species has been collected to extinction in
the wild. Given that no permission has ever been given for a
single plant to be removed from the wild, all wild collected
mature specimens in cultivation are illegal. The original plants
from this gene pool are now scattered throughout private
collections. Due to the exorbitant prices asked on the Black
Market, few collectors own more than one mature plant and the
production of pure viable seed is unlikely as a means of
conserving the species. Likewise the presence of other species
coning at the same time in the garden or neighbouring gardens,
increases the likelihood of hybridization. Ex situ conservation
is in many cases merely the preservation of a specimen but is
not a viable option for the conservation of a species and
habitat protection alone will ensure the survival of a species. |
