Oldest Pot Plant in the world?

[AP Southsea UK]

Oldest pot plant in the world?

🌴 This huge Jurassic cycad - Encephalartos altensteninii - is in the Palm House of Kew gardens (London UK). It was collected by plant hunter Francis Masson, from the Eastern Cape region of South Africa in the early 1770's.
https://identify.plantnet.org/k-world-flora/observations/1021606006

Palm House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, London, TW9 3AE

Eastern Cape Giant Cycad (South Africa, Eastern Cape Province)
Eastern Cape Cycad (Encephalartos altensteinii) is listed as Vulnerable when last assessed for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2009. 
https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/41908/10589725

Encephalartos altensteinii Lehm.
This species occurs in near-coastal sites ranging from open shrubland or grassland and steep rocky slopes to closed evergreen forests in valleys. Plants often occur along river banks and also occur inland at a few sites at higher altitude along the Amatola mountain range.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amathole_Mountains

🌴 The huge Jurassic cycad - Encephalartos altensteninii - was first re-potted in 1984 during the restoration of the Palm House.
🌴 This 1770s Jurassic cycad - Encephalartos altensteninii - weighing in excess of 1000kg was re-potted on 29th July 2009 in a mahogany box.
🌴 The plant grows very slowly putting on just an inch a year (2.5cm) and now weighs so much it has to be supported by metal poles to support the 4.5 metres of trunk.
The plant needed a boost and fresh new compost and was transferred on 29th July 2009 to a specially built mahogany cycad pot constructed at Kew gardens.
It has taken over 3 months to plan this delicate exercise. The total weight exceeds a tonne so a gantry had to be built to lift the trunk and enormous root-ball clear. During the process Kew's gardeners had to support the weight of the trunk and as the plant cleared the old pot, the new one constructed around the root-ball.

The huge Jurassic cycad - Encephalartos altensteninii - is truly King of the Palm House and was collected by plant hunter Francis Masson, from the Eastern Cape region of South Africa in the early 1773 and first arrived at Kew Gardens in 1775 after a 2-year long ocean voyage.
The plant flourished during the 1789 French Revolution. It found the conditions to be ideal and it has thrived in Kew’s majestic Palm House since 1848.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalartos_altensteinii
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/136096-Encephalartos-altensteinii/browse_photos
https://www.cycadlist.org/taxon.php?Taxon_ID=272
https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:297067-1/images
https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/oldest-pot-plant-in-world-eastern-cape-giant-cycad

[happypalms]

You have done your homework well I have seen the cycad and it’s amazing to think it has lived that long in a container I guess that’s why Kew is recognised as one of the top gardens in the world they know their stuff.