Just to show you more cones of Encephalartos, here is one of my to favorite cycad species, Encephalartos ferox. This is the species that is depicted on my logo for my nursery, and is on my website
http://cycadjungle.8m.com
This species has huge holly type leaflets and have beautiful red cones. There is a flat leaflet form and a special form with tubular shaped leaflets. Here is a huge cone on my female tubular ferox
The upper cone scales are sterile, and the lower cone scales will hold seeds. If you look real close, this female is receptive right now. There is a crack between the sterile scales and the seed holding scales, and this is where I will be pouring pollen in tomorrow morning at an attempt to produce seeds. This crack will stay open for 5 days and then close shut. All cycads are insect pollinated and most are pollinated by a particular weevil species specific to each species. They will crawl into that gap and crawl around in the cone with pollen on their legs. Here again, my hat for scale:
Here is a male cone from a flat leaf ferox:
Here is a much smaller female cone on a flat leaf form, but this particular plant has very wide leaflets compared to some of the other flat leaf plants:
Encephalartos ferox comes from South Africa and Mozambique. It is more common than many of the Encephalartos species, so for many, it is an entry level Encephalartos for people starting a cycad collection. I have about 300 of these in all sizes from seedlings to mature coning plants. It is more cold hardy than the species from northern areas. The leaves will burn at 23F when grown out in the open, but if you put them under a canopy, like for me, under an oak tree, the leaves don't burn until it gets lower than 18F. Usually, these plants get an 8 foot spread, but in deep shade may get about 10 feet across. They rarely get taller than 6 feet tall in a person's lifetime. I keep saying this because most Encephalartos species can easily live 300 to 500 years, or more. Tom
