Editing Encephalartos delucanus

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===Distribution: ===
In the mountains of west
Tanzania within 50 km of Lake Tanganika.

===Stems: ===
Normally subterranean, mature
when 15 cm. in diameter, growing up to 25
cm. in diameter. One female plant had a stem
of almost 1 metre in height above the ground
and 30 cm in diameter. This plant must have
been exceptionally old. A male plant that we
found consisted of 50+ large bulbs, and
another had around 200 separate caudices.

===Leaves: ===
Up to 80 cm. long and a fresh
green colour, slightly recurved. There were a
few small spines on both margins of the
leaflets and the old leaves of the plants visited
had been burnt by the annual fires in the
region. Plants are most attractive.

===Cones: ===
The female cones emerge green
and become a yellow brown colour on
maturity. The male cones we saw were a
light yellow and appeared to be scorched
brown from the fires. The seeds are red.
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===Observations: ===
After a nine hour walk into
the mountains we were stunned to find a single
male plant of ''E. delucanus'' consisting of
over 200 caudices in a huge clump measuring
four metres in diameter. A search of cycad
literature revealed the largest previously
discovered cycad clump was the previously
discovered clump of ''[[Encephalartos schmitzii]]'' found in
Zambia that consisted of over 50 caudices and
over one metre in diameter. This male plant
of ''E. delucanus'' may be the largest ever
discovered. Its age must be staggering! The
species is exceptionally beautiful and very
hardy.

===In cultivation: ===
Plants of ''E. delucanus'' are
extremely rare and this species is completely
unknown in cultivation. Fertile seed may never
be available and the plants in the areas that
we visited were so widely distributed that no
seedling recruitment was possible.

===Contributed by: ===
Peter Heibloem, '''Cycad Gardens'''.<br/>
Reproduced from '''Palms & Cycads''' No. 60&61, July-Dec 1998.


===External Links:===
[https://www.cycadlist.org/taxon.php?Taxon_ID=286 World List], 
[https://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/41914/0 IUCN],
[https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=Encephalartos+delucanus JSTOR],
[https://www.trebrown.com/plant_info.php?species=Encephalartos+delucanus Trebrown]
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[https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Encephalartos+delucanus%22&amp;num=10&amp;sa=Google+Search Google],
[https://images.google.com/images?q=%22Encephalartos+delucanus%22&amp;hl=en&amp;btnG=Google+Search GoogleImages],
[https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Encephalartos+delucanus Flickr],
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[[Category:Encephalartos|delucanus ]]
[[Category:Cycad|Encephalartos_delucanus]]