Encephalartos aemulans pinnae bases

The frond or leaf of Encephalartos aemulans reaches a length of 1,5 m, rarely 2 m; its pinnae or leaflets become up to 15 cm long. The median leaflets, only slightly overlapping, are narrowly elliptic in shape. They are glossy green with a spiny tip and up to three teeth on the upper leaflet margins, up to two on the lower one.

The basal leaflets do not overlap. They are reduced to prickles above the leafless petioles that become up to 11 m long.

An imaginary line, uneven to haphazard, can be envisaged joining the successive leaflet tips. This presents a typical feature of the species: the notably unkempt arrangement of leaflet tips upon the frond, while they are, in contrast, so regularly positioned at the base where they join the rachis (Hugo, 2014; Coates Palgrave, 2002; iNaturalist; www.cycadsociety.org).