Encephalartos arenarius stem-tip leaf bases

The Encephalartos arenarius stem-tip has its leaves spaced on the rounded top part. Lower down, where earlier leaves have dropped off in the past, the patterned stem markings serve as a record of these events, aligned in elegantly curving rows.

Each leaf has a smooth petiole part below the smallest, lowest leaflets that extend laterally, opposite each other. Leaflets from the first one have lobed lower margins, although the low down ones do not manage three lobes.

The sturdy green leaf petiole broadens laterally where it attaches to the stem. This thickening is only slight in this species, unlike for instance, the flattened bases of E. altensteinii petioles (Hugo, 2014; Coates Palgrave, 2002; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist).