Encephalartos natalensis

Encephalartos natalensis

Encephalartos natalensis is a large South African cycad, endemic to the interior of KwaZulu-Natal and the far north-east of the Eastern Cape, where it grows on cliffs, in wooded ravines and on rocky outcrops. This species of the genus Encephalartos, described in 1951 by Robert Allen Dyer and Inez Verdoorn, forms trunks 3 to 4 m tall, sometimes 6.5 m, often branching from the base, and dark green leaves 1.3 to 3.2 m long whose lowest leaflets are reduced to prickles. Long included in Encephalartos altensteinii, with which it is still often confused in cultivation, it is assessed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. At the Jardin zoologique tropical in La Londe-les-Maures (Var, south-east France), a plant survived −6 °C (21 °F) in February 2012, but its leaves were damaged by the frost.

Key facts about Encephalartos natalensis

  • Accepted name: Encephalartos natalensis R.A.Dyer & I.Verd. (1951), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), GBIF and Species+
  • Former names and synonyms: no synonym; before 1951 the Natal plants were placed in Encephalartos altensteinii Lehm.
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: Natal cycad, Natal giant cycad (Species+, PlantZAfrica); natalbroodboom in Afrikaans (PlantZAfrica)
  • Natural range: South Africa, from Tabankulu (north-eastern Eastern Cape) through inland KwaZulu-Natal to the upper Umfolozi catchment near Vryheid; cliffs, forest and rocks, at around 1,200 m
  • IUCN status: Vulnerable (VU A2acd), assessment by J.D. Bösenberg dated May 2020, published in 2022
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix I since 1977, like the whole genus; Annex A in the European Union, with a positive EU opinion (2011) on artificially propagated plants from South Africa whose caudex does not exceed 15 cm in diameter
  • Documented hardiness: regular frosts in part of its range (PlantZAfrica); −6 °C (21 °F) survived with damaged leaves at the Jardin zoologique tropical (Var, France, February 2012); losses reported by growers at −4 °C (24.8 °F) and −7 °C (19.4 °F) in France (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: sun or light shade, a rich, well-drained soil and moderate watering (PlantZAfrica)
  • Habit and adult size: trunks 3 to 4 m, rarely 6.5 m, 30 to 40 cm in diameter, often several from the base; leaves 1.3 to 3.2 m
  • In the UK, US and Australia: grown outdoors at Tresco Abbey Garden (Isles of Scilly, photographs of July 2026); declared by Kew, Edinburgh, Cambridge (accession of 2013), Logan and other British gardens; Montgomery Botanical Center (accessions from 1964 to 2000), Fairchild, the Huntington, Lotusland and many other American gardens; Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Adelaide and Townsville in Australia (BGCI)
  • Toxicity: seeds toxic, as in all cycads (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Encephalartos natalensis

It is a large, tree-like Encephalartos with dark green leaves and a crown covered in golden wool. The most useful character is at the base of the leaves: there the leaflets dwindle into a row of prickles on each side of the petiole. Dyer and Verdoorn (1951), Dyer (1965) and PlantZAfrica describe it as follows:

  • Stems: single or, more often, branching from the base, 3 to 4 m tall, sometimes up to 6.5 m, 30 to 40 cm in diameter; the woolly crown thickens with each new flush of leaves or cones
  • Leaves: 1.3 to 3.2 m long, almost straight or slightly recurved and twisted towards the tip; young leaves are covered in yellowish-brown wool
  • Leaflets: dark green, rigid and pungent, 16 to 23 cm long and 2.5 to 4.5 cm wide, entire or with one to five teeth on one or both margins, mainly on the lower leaflets; in young plants they may be almost lobed; towards the base of the leaf they are reduced to prickles
  • Cones: two or three together, deep greenish yellow with a russet woolly covering according to Dyer, orange-yellow to orange-red according to PlantZAfrica; male cones cylindrical, 45 to 50 cm by 9 to 12 cm, shedding pollen from April to June; female cones ovoid, 50 to 60 cm by 25 to 30 cm, with wrinkled scales, disintegrating from November to January
  • Seeds: scarlet, 2.5 to 3.5 cm long according to PlantZAfrica, up to 5 cm according to Dyer; a female cone releases 415 to 510 of them

PlantZAfrica calls it the most variable species in the genus. Growers recognise many locality forms with broader or narrower leaflets; a member of the French forum Fous de palmiers counted “at least 27” of them in January 2015. These form names are not recognised taxa. Jungle Music, a nursery in southern California, adds that emerging leaves often carry a brown to golden fuzz and that the leaves stand upright at first, relaxing when the next flush appears.

Encephalartos natalensis
Encephalartos natalensis at the Jardim Botânico Tropical in Lisbon, Portugal.

Hybrids

Encephalartos natalensis is a very close relative of Encephalartos woodii, which is known from a single male clone. Hybrids of Encephalartos woodii × Encephalartos natalensis are raised in cultivation for want of a female Encephalartos woodii: in 2010 a British grower mentioned on the Hardy Tropicals forum a South African project of successive backcrosses to Encephalartos woodii, and first-generation hybrids were grown by amateurs in Agen (south-west France) from 2010 and in southern Corsica in 2013 (Fous de palmiers forum). This backcrossing project is known only from these growers’ reports. In 2012 a grower in Ravenna who had bought a supposed second-generation hybrid online learnt that his plant probably carried no Encephalartos woodii genes at all (Tropicamente forum). The Orto Botanico in Palermo displays an Encephalartos woodii × natalensis hybrid outdoors (local press, August 2025; the university’s “Celibi” exhibition, 2026). A genetic study by Viljoen and van Staden (2006) compared the two species with RAPD fingerprinting. In the United States, the Montgomery Botanical Center lists an accession of an Encephalartos natalensis hybrid dating from 1984, and the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, the Huntington and Adelaide hold Encephalartos natalensis × woodii hybrids, which should not be counted as Encephalartos woodii.

Other hybrids circulate under uncertain names (natalensis × horridus, natalensis × trispinosus or altensteinii; Fous de palmiers forum, 2012–2013). As with all cycads, a plant raised from collection seed is not necessarily pure: in October 2011 a grower on the same forum warned that, for want of pollen of the right species, unscrupulous sellers fertilise females of rare species with pollen of Encephalartos natalensis.

Possible confusion

The commonest confusion is with Encephalartos altensteinii, under which the species was classified until 1951. Dyer and Verdoorn separated it by its lower leaflets almost always reduced to prickles, its leaflets on average broader, stiffer and darker green, and its larger plants, more often branching from the base. Dyer (1965) adds a difference of habitat: Encephalartos altensteinii is common in the coastal vegetation of the Eastern Cape, whereas Encephalartos natalensis is restricted to the cliffs and ravines of the interior. In cultivation the identity of old plants sometimes remains undecided: a grower in Roussillon (south of France) was unsure in 2010 whether his large green Encephalartos, imported in 1994, was an altensteinii or a natalensis (Fous de palmiers forum). Jungle Music uses the same practical character: unlike the clean petiole of Encephalartos altensteinii, the leaf base of Encephalartos natalensis carries prickles and spines.

Further north, Encephalartos lebomboensis, taken in a broad sense by Dyer (1965), who included the plants now named Encephalartos senticosus, differs in the smoother, flatter face of its female cone scales, straighter leaves, a more densely prickly petiole base and narrower leaflets; according to Dyer the two ranges do not overlap, Encephalartos lebomboensis not extending south of the Pongola catchment and Encephalartos natalensis not north of the Umfolozi. PlantZAfrica also mentions Encephalartos msinganus, long included in Encephalartos natalensis and described by Piet Vorster in 1996: its leaflets are narrower (16 to 20 mm) and its female cone is warty.

Finally, the protologue distinguishes Encephalartos natalensis from Encephalartos transvenosus, with paler, more arched leaflets that keep a fine down for a long time, and from Encephalartos woodii, with a stouter trunk widened at the base and long, evenly arching then drooping leaves. In Encephalartos longifolius, another large green species, the basal leaflets are not reduced to a row of prickles. On the Fous de palmiers forum, in May 2013, growers matched an unnamed plant offered for sale with Encephalartos natalensis rather than Encephalartos turneri, because its young leaves became woolly as they emerged.

Taxonomy

Encephalartos natalensis is an accepted name in The World List of Cycads, GBIF and Species+. The species was described in 1951 by Robert Allen Dyer and Inez Clare Verdoorn in Bothalia (volume 6, issue 1, pp. 205–211, plates 1–3). The type is an old female plant from the Valley of a Thousand Hills, near Inchanga, in Natal (Dyer 4475, collected on 22 September 1945; holotype at the National Herbarium in Pretoria, isotypes at Grahamstown and in the Natal Herbarium). Until then these plants had been placed in Encephalartos altensteinii, in the broad sense adopted by Hutchinson and Rattray in Flora Capensis (1933); the authors acknowledged that the differences they relied on “might not be very convincing to others”. They also noted a gap in distribution: neither species was then known from the Transkei, and Dyer (1965) records that this gap had since been largely closed. No variety is recognised, and the name has not changed since its publication.

Etymology and history

The epithet natalensis means “of Natal”, the former province now called KwaZulu-Natal, where the species was discovered (Haynes, 2022, via The World List of Cycads). The genus name Encephalartos means “bread in the head”, a reference to the starchy pith of the trunk.

Dyer (1965) records that the plant was already called the “Natal giant cycad” in 1867, when a very large specimen at Kranskloof was painted by J. Sanderson; a trunk of that plant, which filled a wagon, was taken to the Durban botanic garden. In 1908 John Medley Wood reported a male in that garden bearing 18 cones at once, which he believed to be a record. The type plant at Monteseel, near Inchanga, had eleven trunks in 1951, the tallest measuring 19 ft 9 in (about 6 m); Dyer and Verdoorn ventured to put the age of the largest branch at over 250 years and that of the rootstock at perhaps over 1,000 years, stressing that this was a guess. The owner of the land made it into a park, and the plant was to be declared a national monument. A tornado broke its tallest trunk in 1961 (Dyer, 1965).

Common names

Species+ gives the English names Natal cycad and Natal giant cycad; PlantZAfrica gives Natal cycad in English, natalbroodboom in Afrikaans, isigqikisomkhovu and umhlungulo in Zulu, and umguza and umphanga in Xhosa. The name “Natal giant cycad” is old: Dyer (1965) traces it back to 1867. No other English name is attested in a reliable source.

In the wild

Encephalartos natalensis is endemic to South Africa. According to PlantZAfrica, it grows from Tabankulu, in the north-east of the Eastern Cape, through most of KwaZulu-Natal to the upper Umfolozi catchment near Vryheid; Dyer (1965) places it from the border between the Eastern Cape and southern Natal to northern Natal. The World List of Cycads gives only KwaZulu-Natal. Dyer describes the species on krantzes (cliffs) and in ravines inland, well away from coastal vegetation, for example at the Howick Falls near Pietermaritzburg and on Mount Inhlazatje, south of Vryheid.

PlantZAfrica states that it grows on cliffs, in forest and on rocky outcrops, in a climate that is hot in summer and cold in winter, with regular frosts, at around 1,200 m. Fire is not a threat, because the rocks and evergreen vegetation around the plants protect them. The caterpillars of a moth, Zerenopsis leopardina, badly damage the foliage in some areas. The seeds are dispersed by trumpeter hornbills, monkeys, rodents, bats and baboons, which eat the fleshy coat and discard the poisonous kernel. Jungle Music describes the species as coming from the northern Eastern Cape at elevations “to 300 feet”, which contradicts PlantZAfrica and Dyer, both of whom describe an inland species of cliffs and ravines.

Conservation status and regulation

Encephalartos natalensis is assessed as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List under criterion A2acd: a past reduction of the population, directly observed and linked to a decline in habitat and to collecting. The assessment, by J.D. Bösenberg, is dated 21 May 2020 and was published in 2022 (The World List of Cycads, GBIF, Crossref). The Red List of South African Plants already listed it as Vulnerable in 2009 (Raimondo et al., cited by PlantZAfrica).

The IUCN action plan for cycads (Donaldson, 2003) then classed it as Near Threatened, with 8,300 to 12,000 plants, a slight decline, a moderate reduction in habitat and populations inside protected areas; it had been rated Rare in 1997. The same document records that bark harvesting for traditional medicine has caused several populations in KwaZulu-Natal to decline. PlantZAfrica adds that very large numbers of plants have been removed from the wild, mainly for landscaping. South Africa’s CITES Scientific Authority (SANBI) has published no non-detriment finding for this species.

Regulation, according to Species+ (consulted through its public API on 26 October 2026):

  • CITES: Appendix I since 4 February 1977, like the whole genus;
  • European Union: Annex A, current list in Regulation (EU) 2026/1383; positive opinion of the EU Scientific Review Group of 20 June 2011 on artificially propagated plants from South Africa, limited to plants whose caudex does not exceed 15 cm in diameter (this followed a negative genus-wide opinion of December 2010, lifted in March 2011); a new consultation covering the whole genus has been open since 16 September 2026.

Any plant offered for sale must come from cultivation and carry the CITES documents required by the countries concerned (and, in the European Union, the EU documents). These notes do not replace the official texts: check Species+ and the national authorities before any purchase or import.

Growing Encephalartos natalensis

PlantZAfrica describes Encephalartos natalensis as a relatively fast-growing cycad that thrives in sun or light shade, in a rich, well-drained soil with moderate moisture. Young plants need protection from cold; PlantZAfrica advises planting them out at about three years old, when their leaves reach about 1 m, and removing dead leaves. It adds that some forms are much more frost-resistant than others, without naming them.

“Fast” is relative: Dyer and Verdoorn (1951) estimated, from records they considered meagre, that a tree-like species such as this one adds 60 to 90 cm of trunk in 30 to 50 years, and that leaf flushes are not necessarily annual in adult plants. A British grower reported on the Hardy Tropicals forum in July 2010 that his plant, bought in 1982, was producing its first flush of leaves since the autumn of 2008.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Its habitat, rocky cliffs and ravines where water drains away quickly, shows what matters in the garden: a deep, very free-draining soil, plenty of light and no standing water around the trunk, especially in cool weather. In southern California, Jungle Music considers the species very easy to grow, tolerating full sun or part-day sun on the coast and only a few hours of direct sun in desert areas, and stresses that wet, boggy soil is harmful; it recommends giving the plant plenty of room, as it makes a large specimen, and notes that leaves grown in bright sun stay shorter. At the Marimurtra garden in Blanes (Catalonia, Spain), a large female was planted in the ground in 2018, with drainage and a small channel to prevent water standing at the foot; its first two cones were removed to help it root.

Container cultivation

Young plants are well suited to pots: PlantZAfrica only advises planting out at about three years old, and Jungle Music notes that the species can be grown on a patio if it gets enough light. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, which grows under glass a plant received in 1938, recommends a rich, very free-draining compost, full sun and cultivation in a cool glasshouse, with the plant moved outdoors only in summer (article of May 2012). In frost-prone climates, a large container kept frost-free and on the dry side in winter is the safe option; the eventual size of the plant, several trunks of several metres, means that it will outgrow most containers.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

Encephalartos natalensis is one of the most widely held species of the genus: BGCI PlantSearch lists 71 institutions. In the United Kingdom, outdoor cultivation is documented in one garden: the Tresco Abbey Garden (Isles of Scilly), which describes its climate as mild and practically frost-free, published three photographs captioned Encephalartos natalensis in its garden diary for July 2026, with “towering cycads” in the sun during a summer drought. Elsewhere the British gardens grow it under glass or do not say: Kew, Edinburgh (plant received in 1938, cool glasshouse), Cambridge (accession of 2013, glasshouses), Logan, Glasgow, Wisley, Sheffield, Birmingham and Paignton Zoo declare it to BGCI. In the United States, the Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists 13 accessions, eight of which can be dated from their numbers (1964, 1973, 1977, 1987 and four of 2000); BGCI also lists Fairchild, the Huntington, Lotusland, the San Diego Botanic Garden, the San Diego Zoo, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, the New York Botanical Garden and around twenty others. In Australia it is declared by the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mount Coot-tha, the Cairns Botanic Gardens, the Botanic Garden of Adelaide and James Cook University in Townsville. A BGCI listing records a declaration by the garden, not a living plant on display today. Jungle Music usually holds plants of all sizes, from seedlings to coning specimens, and describes the species as rare but affordable for a South African cycad.

Propagation

PlantZAfrica recommends propagating Encephalartos natalensis from seed. The species is dioecious, so a male and a female coning at the same time are needed; in cultivation pollination is often done by hand, and Jungle Music points out that both sexes are needed for pure seed. Before sowing, remove the fleshy coat of the seeds, wearing gloves since it is poisonous. Plants that branch from the base produce suckers, which can be separated. Seeds, plants and suckers are all covered by CITES Appendix I.

Pests and diseases

In the wild, the caterpillars of Zerenopsis leopardina devour the foliage (PlantZAfrica). In cultivation, the main risk in cool climates is rot of the roots and caudex in cold, waterlogged soil: at Concarneau, in Brittany (north-west France), trials of the species failed in 2008, the plants having rotted after the winter of 2007–2008 (Fous de palmiers forum, January 2009).

Cold hardiness

PlantZAfrica describes the species as frost-resistant and notes that frosts are regular in its range, but also that young plants must be protected. Dated reports from cultivation are few and mostly record damage or losses. As with all Encephalartos, survivals in cold areas often concern young plants whose caudex is still underground, protected by the thermal inertia of the soil and sometimes by snow; adult plants with an aerial trunk do not benefit from this protection.

Mediterranean and European experience

  • Var (south-east France): at the Jardin zoologique tropical in La Londe-les-Maures, a plant survived −6 °C (21 °F) in February 2012, but its leaves were damaged by the frost. This Mediterranean observation is useful for readers in comparable climates, such as coastal California or southern Australia.
  • Lot-et-Garonne (south-west France): a grower in Agen reports in January 2011 that an Encephalartos natalensis and an Encephalartos munchii died after a frost of −4 °C (24.8 °F), which had completely defoliated an Encephalartos altensteinii that later recovered (Fous de palmiers forum); he states neither the winter nor whether the plants were in the ground.
  • Roussillon (south of France): a grower with no protection against frost or rain wrote in November 2010 that he had lost an Encephalartos natalensis and an Encephalartos altensteinii at −7 °C (19.4 °F), and specified in February 2011 that his plant, in the ground without protection, died “in its second winter” (Fous de palmiers forum).
  • Brittany: at Concarneau, trials failed in 2008, the plants having rotted after the winter of 2007–2008 (Fous de palmiers forum, January 2009).
  • Italy: a grower in the Naples area wrote in December 2008 that the species “lives very well” there (Tropicamente forum), and the Orto Botanico in Naples grew eleven plants in the early 1990s (Gaudio et al., 1997); no cold readings accompany these mentions.
  • Spain: a large plant has grown in the ground at Marimurtra, in Blanes, since 2018, with no published cold readings.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

  • United States: at the Juniper Level Botanic Garden in North Carolina, the form ‘Kranskop’ did not survive, in the ground and unprotected, the winter of 2013–2014, with minimums of −13 to −16 °C (9 to 4 °F, the values given by the garden) depending on the location. Jungle Music states that the species “easily withstands a freeze” in southern California, with an absolute minimum of about −5.6 °C (22 °F); this is a nursery’s assessment, not a measured trial.
  • United Kingdom: the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh says that it tolerates a light frost but grows it in a cool glasshouse (2012). The plants photographed at Tresco in 2026 grow outdoors in a garden that describes its climate as practically frost-free; no temperature is given.
  • Australia: no hardiness data have been published for the species.

No USDA zone is documented for Encephalartos natalensis in a reliable source. Taken together, these reports suggest planting out only in the mildest coastal sites, with perfect drainage, and keeping young plants and containers frost-free in winter.

Toxicity and precautions

Like other cycads, Encephalartos natalensis contains toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived; these substances affect the liver and the nervous system, and the seeds are the most dangerous part. PlantZAfrica points out that the kernel of the seed is poisonous to people, whereas animals eat only the fleshy coat. The leaflets are rigid and sharp. Wear gloves to handle seeds, and keep plants and seeds out of reach of children and pets. If any part is swallowed, contact a poison centre, a doctor or a vet without delay.

Traditional uses

According to PlantZAfrica, the bark of Encephalartos natalensis is harvested for the traditional medicine (“muthi”) trade in most of KwaZulu-Natal, and the pith of the trunk was once used as flour in times of famine. Heavy bark harvesting, which strips large areas of the trunk, can kill the plant (Donaldson, 2003). The species is also widely grown as an ornamental.

Frequently asked questions

How cold-hardy is Encephalartos natalensis?

Only moderately. At the Jardin zoologique tropical in the south of France, a plant survived −6 °C (21 °F) in February 2012 with damaged leaves, but French growers lost plants at −4 °C (24.8 °F) and −7 °C (19.4 °F), and a plant of the form ‘Kranskop’ died in North Carolina in the winter of 2013–2014. Outside frost-free or nearly frost-free climates, a container kept under cover in winter is the safe choice.

How can it be told from Encephalartos altensteinii?

By the base of the leaves: in Encephalartos natalensis the leaflets dwindle into a row of prickles on each side of the petiole; in Encephalartos altensteinii they become smaller without turning into prickles. Its leaflets are also, on average, broader, stiffer and darker. On a young plant of unknown origin, identification often remains uncertain.

Does it grow fast?

For a cycad, yes: PlantZAfrica calls it relatively fast-growing. But according to Dyer and Verdoorn (1951), a trunk gains on average only 1 to 3 cm a year in its first decades, and a plant may go more than a year without new leaves.

How big does it get?

Its trunks usually reach 3 to 4 m, rarely 6.5 m, and 30 to 40 cm across, with leaves 1.3 to 3.2 m long. It often forms a clump of several trunks.

What is a woodii × natalensis hybrid?

It is a cross between the single male clone of Encephalartos woodii, extinct in the wild, and a female Encephalartos natalensis, its close relative. According to growers, such hybrids are used in backcrossing projects; they are also sold to collectors, but they do not replace the pure species.

Is it poisonous?

Yes, especially the seeds, as in all cycads. The kernel contains toxic glycosides; keep seeds away from children and pets.

Can it be grown outdoors in Britain?

Only in exceptional sites. The Tresco Abbey Garden, in the practically frost-free Isles of Scilly, shows large plants outdoors, but the other British gardens that hold the species grow it under glass, and Edinburgh recommends a cool glasshouse with a summer outing.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Dyer, R.A. & Verdoorn, I.C. (1951). Encephalartos natalensis. Bothalia 6(1): 205–211, plates 1–3. [Original description, type, measurements of the Monteseel plant, estimate of age (optical character recognition).]
  • Hutchinson, J. & Rattray, G. (1933). Cycadaceae. Flora Capensis 5(2). [Broad concept of Encephalartos altensteinii; cited by Dyer and Verdoorn (1951).]
  • Dyer, R.A. (1965). The cycads of southern Africa. Bothalia 8: 405–515. [Description, range, history, distinction from Encephalartos altensteinii and Encephalartos lebomboensis.]
  • Gaudio, L. et al. (1997). Enzyme polymorphism in Encephalartos Lehmann (Zamiaceae). Delpinoa n.s. 35–36 (1993–1994): 55–64. [Table 1: eleven plants grown at the Naples botanic garden.]
  • Donaldson, J.S. (ed.) (2003). Cycads. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Cycad Specialist Group, Gland and Cambridge. [Table of statuses, bark harvesting.]
  • Viljoen, C.D. & van Staden, J. (2006). The genetic relationship between Encephalartos natalensis and E. woodii determined using RAPD fingerprinting. South African Journal of Botany 72(4): 642–645. doi:10.1016/j.sajb.2006.03.008 [Cited by The World List of Cycads.]
  • Raimondo, D. et al. (eds) (2009). Red List of South African Plants 2009. Strelitzia 25. SANBI, Pretoria. [National status, cited by PlantZAfrica.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Encephalartos natalensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T41937A51042544. [Current assessment, cited by The World List of Cycads and Crossref.]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. [Etymology, via The World List of Cycads.]
  • Calonje, M., Stevenson, D.W. & Osborne, R. (2026). The World List of Cycads, version 2026.08.15. Montgomery Botanical Center, Coral Gables. doi:10.5281/zenodo.21958524 [Reference checklist; consulted.]