Troubled Encephalartos lebomboensis

[Tracy]

My Encephalartos lebomboensis pushed a flush which for some reason looked like it was fried, late in the push, and now these cones look a bit strange to me.  I knew the leaves on the last flush have looked like this for a few months, although I didn't make any notes of when it was pushing them because its at a rental property.  I actually don't even know when these cones began pushing or if they too are an aborted attempt which has been in this stage for a while.  There is a Dioon immediately to its north which has no issues, and a big Cycas thouarsii to it's south which is growing normally (and she's pushed many little offsets now).  My first thought was maybe something was accidentally thrown into the flush as the tenants have young active kids who play sports but that was when it was just the flush which had turned brown.  Oh well, I guess I will just have to watch it.  While its not my favorite Encephalartos as it is very vicious to work around, I grew it from a one leaf seedling, so it has some additional sentimental attachment.

[GeneAZ]

There's some Encephalartos that pull a lot of starch out of the leaves nearest the cones resulting in the effect on your plant.  I've seen it in hirsutus, lebomboensis, msinga, and arenarius.  So far, I haven't seen it occur in male cones.  Have you done the pathology on your aborted cones to see if they're female?  Would be interesting to know.

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, GeneAZ said:

Have you done the pathology on your aborted cones to see if they're female?  Would be interesting to know.

Unfortunately, I snapped the photo just as we were leaving the house after meeting with our tenants, so no I haven't checked them.  I don't even know when they started pushing.  I'll have to get back over there soon, but I try to not bother the tenants very much.