Cycad

Cycad (Encephalartos woodii)

It’s one of the rarest plants in the world: a tall palm with dark, glossy leaves, once found only on a single south-facing slope on the edge of the Ngoye forest in Southern Africa. It’s extinct in the wild and produces no seeds – the only plant ever found was male. People have begun crossing it with its closest relative to produce ‘pups’ that, after 3 generations, are almost pure E. woodii  again.

 Fun History

In 1895, a single clump of an unknown cycad species was discovered by John Medley Wood on the edge of a forest in South Africa. Over the next two decades, all four stems of Wood’s cycad were removed from the wild and taken into cultivation. To date, a second wild plant has never been discovered, but the successful cultivation of offsets of the original plant, has ensured the ex-situ preservation of this enigmatic species. In addition to its rarity, the striking appearance of Wood’s cycad has made it one of the most sought after cycad species in the world.