Current Favorite Cycad?

[Tracy]

Encephalartos longifolius arguably has the best structure of any of the Encephalartos.  It has such an organized, dare I say formal structure yet there are plenty of variations in form as well.  Below are a couple I'm growing.  The smaller one stalled after transplanting from my old garden where changes in the neighbor's landscaping necessitated that I move it to a sunnier spot in the new garden.  Those re-curved leaf ends makes it extra appealing.  I just hope it retains this characteristic when it gets to the size of my big boy.  I wish I had more space to plant more of these!

[Palm Tree Jim]

Agree with you Tracy on the form structure for longifolius. Very formal stacking and vary in colors as well.

Nice specimens in the pictures.

[Palm Tree Jim]

Just an interesting sighting in my garden this AM after the rain. I have never seen the sap before on a cone. Has anyone seen this before?

 

 

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Has anyone seen this before?

Yes Jim.  I think its the same thing that we see when they get too much water in the form of rain.  It's essentially oozing starch.  I've seen it on the caudex, leaves and most recently on the Encephalartos horridus x woodii female cone.  On that cone it started oozing some of the starchy sap after the last rain from the spots where I had inserted my syringe to pollinate it.  It had already sealed back up as they normally do after receptivity is complete but that was the weak spot to push out the syrupy sap.  I've seen this on my male Encephalartos trispinosis as well in prior years.  It's pretty visible in this shot from Monday.  My Encephalartos turneri is notorious for oozing from leaves and I'm sure if I went out I would find some black ooze on the caudex.  It's there way of saying "stop all this rain and give me a break!"

If you double-click on the photo and it loads in a different window, you can actually zoom in and see it better.  These thumbnails it loads from my files never quite do justice compared to the actual photo.

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

interesting sighting in my garden this AM after the rain

Looks like a male Encephalartos princeps with the yellow collars.  Am I right?

[Tracy]

11 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

I have never seen the sap before on a cone. Has anyone seen this before?

Just a follow up on your question.  I went out after the rain broke this afternoon and took pictures of the Encephalartos arenarius x woodii cones followed by the caudex of two other cycads all leaking.  The last two are an Encephalartos inopinus and the E lehmannii I mentioned above that always pushes ooze when it rains a lot.  Hopefully this spring will result in lots of pent up energy and big flushes for us!

[Palm Tree Jim]

20 hours ago, Tracy said:

Looks like a male Encephalartos princeps with the yellow collars.  Am I right?

Actually, trispinosus. The rain has altered the color on the caudex somewhat.  However, I wish it was a princeps since it is trunking.

[Palm Tree Jim]

10 hours ago, Tracy said:

Just a follow up on your question.  I went out after the rain broke this afternoon and took pictures of the Encephalartos arenarius x woodii cones followed by the caudex of two other cycads all leaking.  The last two are an Encephalartos inopinus and the E lehmannii I mentioned above that always pushes ooze when it rains a lot.  Hopefully this spring will result in lots of pent up energy and big flushes for us!

Thanks for the follow up and pictures. I will head out later this morning and check some other plants and see what I find.

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Actually, trispinosus. The rain has altered the color on the caudex somewhat.  However, I wish it was a princeps since it is trunking.

That makes sense Jim.  The cones look a lot like the ones on my little E. trispinosis boy.  I'm a long way off from it forming any trunk as it seems to have really hunkered down.  A very subterranean caudex on mine but already pushing about 3 pups off to the sides.  The E lehmanii above (oozing caudex photo) is much older, much bigger but no sign of coning on the main caudex or large main pup at this point.

[Tracy]

After having to trim off the lowest leaf of the Pseudophoenix which had been hanging into the crown of this Encephalartos eugne-maraisii, it really opened up the view.  I love the leaflet insertion pattern on this species as well as the dull green/grey color.

[Palm Tree Jim]

8 hours ago, Tracy said:

After having to trim off the lowest leaf of the Pseudophoenix which had been hanging into the crown of this Encephalartos eugne-maraisii, it really opened up the view.  I love the leaflet insertion pattern on this species as well as the dull green/grey color.

One of my favorites Tracy.

Great specimen.

[tinman10101]

On 1/29/2021 at 7:14 AM, Tracy said:

Encephalartos longifolius arguably has the best structure of any of the Encephalartos.  It has such an organized, dare I say formal structure yet there are plenty of variations in form as well.  Below are a couple I'm growing.  The smaller one stalled after transplanting from my old garden where changes in the neighbor's landscaping necessitated that I move it to a sunnier spot in the new garden.  Those re-curved leaf ends makes it extra appealing.  I just hope it retains this characteristic when it gets to the size of my big boy.  I wish I had more space to plant more of these!

What a FATTY!!!  I love when longifolius become robust like that.  I think that is when they start flushing a plethora of leaves like the huge ones that Ken have.

[Tracy]

19 hours ago, tinman10101 said:

I think that is when they start flushing a plethora of leaves like the huge ones that Ken have.

The last flush on the chunky one coincided with the cones pushing out, so it put most of the energy into the cones.  I do hope that it pushes another big flush and holds off a little on coning in 2021.  That beefy caudex is inevitably something that people comment on when seeing it in person.

[tinman10101]

8 minutes ago, Tracy said:

The last flush on the chunky one coincided with the cones pushing out, so it put most of the energy into the cones.  I do hope that it pushes another big flush and holds off a little on coning in 2021.  That beefy caudex is inevitably something that people comment on when seeing it in person.

It'll end up looking like this. Not my pic but Ken's. 

 

[Tracy]

It's hard not to change favorites with the day.  I recently pruned this Encephalartos arenarius x woodii to make room for the multiple new flushes that are pushing or will shortly be pushing.  The top of the main caudex hasn't popped yet, and I only removed the old cones from last year about 7 or 8 weeks ago.  It does have 3 additional growth points on the main caudex that aren't really pups, 2 of which are now pushing flushes, It also has one large pup and several smaller ones.  The first photo shows one of the secondary growth points flushing and the main growth point which is fuzzy and peaking up, indicating something is building underneath it.  He second photo shows another secondary growth on the main caudex and the largest pup below it which is flushing and again up behind it is the main "top" growth point.  The three growth heads that are now off to the side emerged from where 3 cones had been few flushes and cones back now.  This is proving to be a monster plant, and that's after I removed another large pup that was about 12" at harvesting almost 2 1/2 years ago.  "Vigorous" is the word of the day!

[Tracy]

Yesterday I was thinking about the friend that created or at least raised and sold to me so many of the very cool and yes, favorite cycads in my garden.  Yesterday was a year since George Sparkman passed, but his memory in my garden remains strong.  A smattering of why I can't walk through my garden and not occasionally think of some story or growing advice he shared with me.  I'm sure there are others with a few "favorite" cycads that they acquired from George over the years.  If you do, please share.  A mix of some of my favorite George plants below.

[edbrown_III]

My favorite   Encephalartos lehmannii

 

[Tracy]

16 hours ago, edbrown_III said:

My favorite   Encephalartos lehmannii

 

Nice choice of plant.  It is interesting to see how different this species looks in a wetter climate like Florida compared to our dry climate here in Southern California.  With the moister climate, you get the green algae growing on the caudex which changes it's appearance and the leaflets look further spaced along the rachis.  You do appear to be retaining some of the blue color despite the rainfall.  I know older flushes on blues here tend to lose their color after a year or two primarily due to the rainfall washing off the glaucus waxy sunscreen.

Very nice specimen you have and it remained solitary which is somewhat unusual at that size unless you have been removing pups.

[Tracy]

On 6/3/2021 at 10:20 AM, Tracy said:

"Vigorous" is the word of the day!

 

It amazes me how much juice this plant pushes out to have 3 flushes (1 pup and two other flushes) happening at the same time and each pushing mid-teen numbers of leaves. 

[Tracy]

Tis the season for cycad flushes which brings so many to the forefront in my garden.  I've been lovin' on this Encephalartos blue arenarius hybrid for a while as I watch both the main caudex and a couple of pups in the process of pushing out new flushes.  It is still young, so the leaflet form, length of leaves is still yet to be established but I think we are getting closer to what the mature structure will look like.  I think that final structure will be very twisted, highly recurved leaves and plenty blue.  Definitely today's favorite as I walked by it.  The flush will push out a little longer I suppose. 

[Palm Tree Jim]

8 hours ago, Tracy said:

Tis the season for cycad flushes which brings so many to the forefront in my garden.  I've been lovin' on this Encephalartos blue arenarius hybrid for a while as I watch both the main caudex and a couple of pups in the process of pushing out new flushes.  It is still young, so the leaflet form, length of leaves is still yet to be established but I think we are getting closer to what the mature structure will look like.  I think that final structure will be very twisted, highly recurved leaves and plenty blue.  Definitely today's favorite as I walked by it.  The flush will push out a little longer I suppose. 

Really nice form Tracy.

[Tracy]

Happy to see this one flushing again.  It has only been in the ground for a year now, as I kept this one in a pot for a while before planting.  It is an Encephalartos (arenarius x latifrons) x latifrons.

[Palm Tree Jim]

Nice hybrid and the stacking on leaf's is incredible.

[Tracy]

On 7/11/2021 at 7:12 AM, Palm Tree Jim said:

Nice hybrid and the stacking on leaf's is incredible.

This is the other one from the same seed batch that is even more stacked than the flushing one... at least for now.  This one was always a little larger than the other one and got planted in the ground sooner.  I love the way the leaves look from the underside and how interlocked the leaflets are.

[Palm Tree Jim]

For some reason my natalensis has developed lots of hair/fuzz on it's latest flush.

 

[Tracy]

3 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

For some reason my natalensis has developed lots of hair/fuzz on it's latest flush.

I would not have guessed that was an Encephalartos natalensis looking at that particular photo.  Really nice form and amazingly light color for the leaflets.  When I initially looked at the photo, I thought I was looking at something in the E eugene-maraisii complex.  Please share a couple more photos, would like to see the rest of the plant if possible.  Is it the lighting in the photo or are the undersides the same color as the tops of the leaflets?

[Merlyn]

6 minutes ago, Tracy said:

I would not have guessed that was an Encephalartos natalensis looking at that particular photo. 

I'm glad I'm not the only one!  I am probably one of the worst Encephalartos ID'ers around, but my first thought was Hirsutus or something related.  Speaking of IDs, I finally remembered to stop by the house with the gigantic Cycas.  It has a large number of offsets growing from the main trunk, all the way from the base up to the ~10' tall crown.  It looks like they just chop off the offsets from the trunk as they grow.  I need to stop by when someone is around and see if I can get an offset. 

Here is the leaf detail.  Shiny dark green tops with a lime green raised rib, very prominent.  The bottom is matte dark green with a very prominent raised lime green midrib.  I think that would make this Thouarsii, my notes on the various cycas species are:

• Circinalis 80-90 degree on rachis w/long tapering tip, raised rib above visible but flat below.
• Thouarsii 45-60 degrees with more rounded tip, shiny big grooved midrib top, pale w/ raised rib underside.
• Rumphii 90 deg leaves glossy green w/flat midrib above, very pale w/raised midrib below.
• Seemannii deep green 45-70 degrees midrib flat above and raised below.

Let me know if I have any mistakes on the above.  Here's the leaf detail on the top:

And on the bottom. I wish I had checked for focus...

[Tracy]

7 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

my natalensis has developed lots of hair/fuzz on it's latest flush.

I bit took the bait hard.  Must laugh at myself.  Very nice.

[EJ;)]

On 6/6/2021 at 8:47 AM, Tracy said:

Yesterday I was thinking about the friend that created or at least raised and sold to me so many of the very cool and yes, favorite cycads in my garden.  Yesterday was a year since George Sparkman passed, but his memory in my garden remains strong.  A smattering of why I can't walk through my garden and not occasionally think of some story or growing advice he shared with me.  I'm sure there are others with a few "favorite" cycads that they acquired from George over the years.  If you do, please share.  A mix of some of my favorite George plants below.

George Passed away! We are friends on face book and I didn't hear anything! He was such a wonderful guy. I purchased only one specimen from him it is still alive in my backyard. It is being over taken by cannas and ice plant at the moment. Now I feel it needs to be uncovered. I honestly dont remember what variety it is. I will have to take a picture of it.    

[Palm Tree Jim]

15 hours ago, Tracy said:

I bit took the bait hard.  Must laugh at myself.  Very nice.

Laughing is something we all need to do.

 

[GeneAZ]

3 hours ago, EJ;) said:

George Passed away! We are friends on face book and I didn't hear anything! He was such a wonderful guy. I purchased only one specimen from him it is still alive in my backyard. It is being over taken by cannas and ice plant at the moment. Now I feel it needs to be uncovered. I honestly dont remember what variety it is. I will have to take a picture of it.    

I think his wife Gisela still responds to his FB posts.

[Tracy]

6 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Laughing is something we all need to do.

 

You are right Jim... laughter will cure a lot of things and we all need more.

On a different note, my little Sago is popping out a new flush that looks like it will have more leaves than the normal flush of only 3.  It's exciting to see it popping, maybe it is ready to really take off now!

[Tracy]

On 7/11/2021 at 7:12 AM, Palm Tree Jim said:

Nice hybrid and the stacking on leaf's is incredible.

The flushing one is getting closer to hardening off the leaflets and its really looking nice with this flush.  It's still at that awkward pubescent stage where the leaflets and leaves can change with each flush.  With these hybrids you just don't quite know what the mature coning size plant will really settle on for form.  That said, I will be thrilled if the leaflets continue looking like this!

[Tracy]

On 7/13/2021 at 6:12 PM, Tracy said:

You are right Jim... laughter will cure a lot of things and we all need more.

On a different note, my little Sago is popping out a new flush that looks like it will have more leaves than the normal flush of only 3.  It's exciting to see it popping, maybe it is ready to really take off now!

The flush is progressing on my Sago!  What a little beauty.

[freakypalmguy]

1 hour ago, Tracy said:

The flush is progressing on my Sago!  What a little beauty.

That is a very nice Sago Palm Tree, did you get it at Lowe’s or Home Depot

[Tracy]

2 hours ago, freakypalmguy said:

That is a very nice Sago Palm Tree, did you get it at Lowe’s or Home Depot

     Someone else with a sense of humor.  We can thank Jim (aka Palm Tree Jim ) for taking us down this path with his earlier tongue in cheek post.  I was excited to see this pop with more leaves this time as it's previous flushes were all pretty meager.  It is the Kappsehoop form.

[freakypalmguy]

22 hours ago, Tracy said:

     Someone else with a sense of humor.  We can thank Jim (aka Palm Tree Jim ) for taking us down this path with his earlier tongue in cheek post.  I was excited to see this pop with more leaves this time as it's previous flushes were all pretty meager.  It is the Kappsehoop form.

 Look forward to seeing it once it’s hardened off

[Tracy]

With a newly hardened off flush, I'm really liking how this Doon edule "Palma Sola" form is shaping up, she is turning into a real beautiful cycad.  With the larger size of the leaves, it doesn't look a lot like most of it's family members in the Dioon edule group.  When she cones, they are much larger than my other Dioon edule forms.  It's thriving in full am sun and filtered most of the rest of the day to varying extents.

[Tracy]

A couple of Encephalartos dyerianus are catching my eye not only for their beauty, but their differences.  The first was acquired as an offset and has mostly remained solitary, with just one small pup that popped out a year or so ago.  The other started to split into a couple of growth points from the time it was in a band shortly after I got it as a 2 leaf seedling.  The second is still pushing out what appear to be new growth points, so is just a cluster of both subterranean and a few above ground caudices and the leaflets are still retaining some spines.  The offset meanwhile has almost exclusively spineless leaflets (other than the terminal spine).  Leaf insertion angle is more dramatic in the spinier clumping plant.  I still think of the clumping one as juvenile, and am watching how leaflets change over time.  Leaves are getting long, but are also twisted due to the dense cluster of adjacent leaves that each flush must push up through.

So it's as much about the variation of form within the species that made these plants my favorites for now.

[GeneAZ]

I feel that the last three images are nubimontanus, not dyer.  Beautiful plant.