Species of cycad
Encephalartos laurentianus, commonly called the malele or Kwango giant cycad, is a species of cycad that is native to northern Angola and southern Congo (Zaire), mostly along the Kwango River.[2]
Description
It is the largest of all cycads, with multiple stems both upright and prostrate, each as much as sixty feet (18 meters) in length,[3] and bearing a rosette of massive once-pinnate fronds up to 25 feet (eight meters) in length, forty inches (100 cm) in width, and with a petiole or stalk up to three inches (7.6 cm) thick where it joins the stem or trunk. Each stem can be up to four feet (120 cm) in thickness.[4][5][6] This is also said to be the fastest growing cycad, producing up to five "flushes" (rosettes, or clusters) of leaves each year.[7] The species was discovered in 1902 by Louis Gentil.[8]
References
External links
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