Encephalartos senticosus

Encephalartos senticosus, commonly known as the Jozini cycad, is a fast-growing cycad of the Lebombo Mountains of KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland. It grows a thick trunk of sometimes more than 30 cm in diameter and 4 m tall, giving tree size to the plant, especially when considering a fully developed leaf rosette on top of the stem (SA Tree List No 8).

The leaves grow fairly straight or slightly down-curving, between 1,1 m and 1,8 m in length. The leaves are dark green and glossy. The stumps of old leaf bases remain on the stem as may be observed on the plant in picture. Leaflets are narrowly ovate and toothed, growing on a yellow rachis or leaf axis. Leaflets vary in length between 12 cm and 18 cm, shorter nearer the leaf base, until there are only prickles right at the base. The leaflets are hard, their tips spiny.

The distribution is in the far north of KwaZulu-Natal, from south of the Jozini Dam along the Lebombo Mountains to eSwatini.

The habitat is on rocky mountain slopes, forested ravines and exposed cliffs in dry shrubby savanna. The habitat population is deemed vulnerable early in the twenty first century, due to illegal plant collection and the building of the Jozini Dam (Hugo, 2014; Coates Palgrave, 2002; iNaturalist; www.plantzafrica.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).