Encephalartos gratus - Meet the Plants - National Tropical Botanical Garden Plant Database

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Encephalartos gratus - Female with fruiting cones

Female with fruiting cones (photo)

Taxonomy:

Encephalartos gratus Prain (Zamiaceae)
Common Names: Bread Palm
Classification:
Kingdom: Plantae-Plants

Subkingdom: Tracheobionta-Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta-Seed plants
Division; Cycadophyta
Class: Cycadopsida
Order: Cycadales
Family: Zamiaceae
Genus: Encephalartos
Species: gratus

Description:

This is a large species of cycad, which grows like a tree with a trunk about 2.5 m tall and 60 cm in diameter.

Its palm-like leaves are 120-200 cm long, made up of leaflets 18-26 cm long, thick, dark green, and very shiny. The petioles and trunk of the tree are covered with rigid, sharp spines. Plants in this family are either male or female, producing pollen cones (30-40 x 5-10 cm) or larger seed cones (55-65 x 15-20 cm) respectively. Seeds form on the seed cones only, and are oblong (30-40 x 14-20 mm) and bright, lipstick red.
(Staples, G. W. and D. R. Herbst. 2005. A Tropical Garden Flora: Plants cultivated in the Hawaiian Islands and other tropical places. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawai`i.)

Geographic Distribution:

These plants are native to a very limited area of north-western Mozambique and south-eastern Malawi.

(Staples, G. W. and D. R. Herbst. 2005. A Tropical Garden Flora: Plants cultivated in the Hawaiian Islands and other tropical places. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawai`i.)

Food Uses:

Seeds of some Zamia species are eaten by indigenous people. Typically they are ground into flour and baked into a type of starchy bread.

Similar to the roots and trunk of most cycads though, they are fairly toxic and require special processing to make them safe to eat.

(Staples, G. W. and D. R. Herbst. 2005. A Tropical Garden Flora: Plants cultivated in the Hawaiian Islands and other tropical places. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawai`i.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalartos

Status:

Because this species has such a limited range, and is so highly sought after as an ornamental plant, it was added to 1997 IUCN Red List of threatened plants, limiting its collection and trade.

(Staples, G. W. and D. R. Herbst. 2005. A Tropical Garden Flora: Plants cultivated in the Hawaiian Islands and other tropical places. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawai`i.)

Species Interconnections and Interdependencies:

Because plants are dioecious (single sex), and their natural pollinators, probably a species of beetle, do not occur in Hawai`i, Encephalartos gratus will only set seed in Hawai’i if a gardener intentionally pollinates the female plant with pollen from a male.

(Staples, G.

W. and D. R. Herbst. 2005. A Tropical Garden Flora: Plants cultivated in the Hawaiian Islands and other tropical places. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawai`i.)

Native Legends and Names:

The name “Encephalartos” comes from the greek words for “Head” and “Bread” referring to the edibility of the plant.

(Staples, G. W. and D. R. Herbst. 2005. A Tropical Garden Flora: Plants cultivated in the Hawaiian Islands and other tropical places. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawai`i.)

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