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Encephalartos altensteinii
Also called Bushman's River Cycad, Eastern Cape Cycad, Prickly Cycad, Bread Palm, Giant Eastern Cape Cycad
A palm-like cycad from South Africa's Eastern Cape that can reach 7 m tall, grown mainly as a slow-growing specimen plant in warm, frost-free gardens or large containers. It is a vulnerable species in the wild, so only buy plants from reputable nurseries.
Encephalartos altensteinii is a species of palm-like cycad in the family Zamiaceae. It is endemic to South Africa. The species name altensteinii commemorates Altenstein, a 19th-century German chancellor and patron of science. It is commonly known as the breadtree, broodboom, Eastern Cape giant cycad or uJobane (Zulu). It is listed as vulnerable due to habitat destruction, use for traditional medicine and removal by collectors.
This species is widespread in the Eastern Cape and south-western KwaZulu-Natal provinces of South Africa. It favours sites near the coast including open scrub, steep rocky slopes, evergreen forests in valleys and river banks. It also occurs inland at a higher altitude in isolated sites in the Amatola Mountains.
Zululand cycad · Eastern Cape blue cycad · Ground Cycad · Wood's cycad
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Encephalartos altensteinii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
