Encephalartos arenarius dark green leaf

This Encephalartos arenarius leaf is greener than the other one shown in this Album. It represents the commoner form of the plant, photographed in Kirstenbosch.

The almost toothless upper margins of the leaflets are very different to the lower ones where three lobes end in tiny spines that darken as they dry. The glossy blades are dark green, the leaf surface bloom often found on E. arenarius absent from this one.

Slight longitudinal unevenness and colour variations are perceptible upon the leaflet blades. Leaf venation in the Zamiaceae family, therefore in the Encephalartos genus, is longitudinal and parallel, lacking midribs.

There is a small, creamy patch on the pale rachis where each leaflet is attached. The leaflets are slightly twisted from the plane of the leaf, accommodating their width (Hugo, 2014; Coates Palgrave, 2002; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000).