Breadtree Cycad

The Breadtree Cycad, Encephalartos altensteinii, also called broodboom or the Eastern Cape giant cycad, is a palm-like cycad of the family Zamiaceae that grows up to seven meters tall, branched or unbranched, with rigid, broad-leafleted fronds nearly ten feet long and greenish-yellow cones up to fifty centimeters long. It is endemic to South Africa, widespread in the Eastern Cape and southwestern KwaZulu-Natal, growing in open scrub, on steep rocky slopes, in evergreen forest along valleys and river banks near the coast, and at some inland mountain sites. It is listed as Vulnerable, threatened by habitat destruction, harvesting for traditional medicine, and removal by collectors, and it is protected under CITES Appendix I. A specimen at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which arrived in 1775, is considered the oldest potted plant in the world.