Encephalartos lehmannii

Encephalartos lehmannii, the Karoo cycad, is a South African cycad endemic to the semi-arid interior of the Eastern Cape, where it grows mainly on sandstone hills and mountains from Willowmore and Steytlerville to Uitenhage and Pearston. This species of the genus Encephalartos, described in 1834 by Johann Georg Christian Lehmann under a name proposed by the collector Christian Ecklon, forms clumps of upright trunks 1 to 2 m tall, crowned with stiff, almost straight, silvery-blue leaves whose leaflets are usually entire. PlantZAfrica calls it the hardiest and most drought-resistant of the South African cycads. Long collected from the wild for gardens, it is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. In cultivation it is one of the few Encephalartos followed in the ground for more than fifteen years on the Mediterranean coast of France, and it is also grown outdoors in south-east England.

Key facts about Encephalartos lehmannii

  • Accepted name: Encephalartos lehmannii Lehm. (1834), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), GBIF and Species+
  • Former names and synonyms: Zamia lehmanniana Eckl. & Zeyh. (name cited by Lehmann, 1834); Encephalartos elongatus Lehm. (1838); Encephalartos lehmannii f. dentatus Regel ex J.Schust. (1932); Species+ also lists Encephalartos spinulosus
  • Family: Zamiaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: Karoo cycad (PlantZAfrica, Species+)
  • Natural range: South Africa, interior of the Eastern Cape (catchments of the Groot and Sundays rivers, Klein Winterberg)
  • IUCN status: Vulnerable (VU A2acd+4acd), assessment by J.D. Bösenberg dated May 2020, published in 2022
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix I (whole genus, since 1977); Annex A in the European Union, with a positive EU opinion (2011) for artificially propagated plants from South Africa with a caudex up to 15 cm in diameter
  • Documented hardiness: tolerates moderate to heavy frost (PlantZAfrica); in Roussillon, south of France, an adult plant in the ground came through −7 °C (19.4 °F) in winter 2009–2010 with little damage; in southern England, a plant in the ground grows every year where the lowest recorded minimum is −8 °C (17.6 °F); killed at −13 to −16 °C (9 to 4 °F) in North Carolina in winter 2013–2014 (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: full sun, neutral to alkaline, very free-draining soil, little water (PlantZAfrica)
  • Habit and adult size: clumps of stems 1 to 2 m tall, rarely more, 25 to 45 cm across; up to ten stems; leaves 1 to 1.5 m
  • In the UK, US and Australia: Kew, Edinburgh, Cambridge (accession of 1959), Glasgow, RHS Wisley and Paignton Zoo; Montgomery Botanical Center (accessions from 1995 to 2012), Lotusland, the Huntington and many others in the United States; outdoor beds at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Sydney, Adelaide and Townsville in Australia
  • Toxicity: seeds and tissues should be treated as poisonous, as in other Encephalartos (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Encephalartos lehmannii

It is a medium-sized blue Encephalartos with stiff, almost straight leaves whose evenly spaced leaflets are entire or bear only one or two small teeth. Dyer (1965) describes it as follows, with additions from PlantZAfrica and Lehmann’s diagnosis (1834):

  • Stems: single or, more often, branching from the base, 1 to 2 m tall, rarely more, and 25 to 45 cm across; PlantZAfrica describes clumps of up to ten stems, with suckers at the base, and a dry, papery bark marked with rings by the old leaf bases
  • Leaves: 1 to 1.5 m, stiff and almost straight, sometimes slightly curved in the upper half, covered with a lasting bluish or silvery bloom; the base of the petiole is swollen, with a red-brown collar (Jungle Music describes it as golden); on old plants the crowns become entangled and lose their individual identity (PlantZAfrica)
  • Leaflets: spaced, close together but rarely overlapping in the upper half, set in a V; the median ones 12 to 18 cm long and 1.7 to 1.9 cm wide, with a pungent tip, entire or sometimes bearing one or two small teeth on the lower margin; towards the base of the leaf they are reduced to a single spine. Lehmann already described them as “pruinose, glaucous” and “quite entire”
  • Cones: one per stem, blackish red over green because of a fine down on the scales; male cones subcylindrical, 25 to 35 cm by 8 to 10 cm, with scales drawn out into a beak of about 1.5 cm, on a short stalk 5 to 12 cm long according to PlantZAfrica; female cones roughly ovoid or barrel-shaped, 45 to 50 cm by about 24 cm, with scales projecting about 2 cm; Dyer describes their faces as almost smooth except for a central ridge and a terminal facet, PlantZAfrica as slightly warty ridges separating smooth facets
  • Seeds: red (Dyer, 1965), deep red according to PlantZAfrica, about 2 cm in diameter

According to PlantZAfrica, plants cone every two years when the rains are sufficient, and stop coning during long droughts. Jungle Music, a cycad nursery in Encinitas, California, adds that the upright leaves, in many ranks, form the upper half of a sphere.

Encephalartos lehmannii
Encephalartos lehmannii grown at the botanical garden of the City of Nice, on the French Riviera.
Encephalartos lehmannii
Encephalartos lehmannii
Encephalartos lehmannii bearing a cone.

Hybrids

No natural hybrid is described for Encephalartos lehmannii. Dyer (1965) notes that it sometimes grows alongside Encephalartos longifolius, for example at Paardepoort on the Klein Winterberg, without any hybridisation being reported between the two. A recent DNA analysis, presented by the Cycad Society of South Africa in September 2026, shows on the other hand that Encephalartos horridus is closely related to Encephalartos lehmannii, with a high level of gene flow between the two species; the article itself is reserved for members. In cultivation, crosses occur whenever several species cone at the same time: a grower warned on the French Fous de palmiers forum in 2011 that many plants sold as Encephalartos horridus come from cross-pollination with Encephalartos lehmannii. A plant raised from garden seed is therefore not necessarily pure.

Possible confusion

The most frequent confusion is with Encephalartos princeps, which most authors included in Encephalartos lehmannii before Dyer described it in 1965. According to Dyer:

  • Encephalartos lehmannii has a larger swollen leaf base (pulvinus) and larger leaf scars, shorter trunks and more widely spaced leaflets;
  • Encephalartos princeps grows taller (up to 3 m, or 5 m when the trunk reclines), its young leaves are often hairy, its leaflets more crowded and overlapping in the upper third of the leaf, its cones grouped in twos or more, and the faces of its female cone scales warty;
  • the two species do not grow on the same rocks: sandstone for Encephalartos lehmannii, dolerite for Encephalartos princeps, which lives further east, in the Great Kei basin;
  • either may carry a few teeth on the lower margin of the leaflets, so this character alone does not separate them.

With Encephalartos horridus, the difference lies mainly in the leaflets: those of Encephalartos horridus carry one to three twisted, spiny lobes, its leaves are strongly recurved and the plant is smaller; the faces of its female cone scales are ribbed, whereas they are almost smooth in Encephalartos lehmannii (Dyer, 1965). The two species meet in the Uitenhage district, Encephalartos horridus mainly in the central, hilly part of the Zwartkops valley, Encephalartos lehmannii in the Klein Winterberg mountains; according to the Cycad Society of South Africa (2026), Encephalartos horridus grows nearer the coast and Encephalartos lehmannii in the drier interior.

Encephalartos trispinosus, also long included in Encephalartos lehmannii (Hutchinson and Rattray, Henderson), has leaflets with one or two spiny lobes, recurved and twisted leaves, and wrinkled, pustular female cone scales; it lives further east, in the valleys of the Bushmans and Great Fish rivers, mostly on shales. Dyer considered it closer to Encephalartos horridus than to Encephalartos lehmannii. Finally, Encephalartos longifolius, which sometimes shares its sites, is an Encephalartos with a massive trunk up to 3 m, usually recurved leaves and generally dark green leaflets, longer and broader (up to 20 by 4 cm), overlapping in the upper half of the leaf; some forms nevertheless have a bluish or silvery sheen (Dyer, 1965).

Taxonomy

Encephalartos lehmannii is an accepted name in The World List of Cycads, GBIF and Species+. Lehmann published it on 15 March 1834 in the Allgemeine Gartenzeitung (volume 2, no. 11, p. 86), then in the sixth part of his Novarum et minus cognitarum stirpium pugillus, in which he created the genus Encephalartos. There he explains that the collectors Christian Ecklon and Carl Zeyher had discovered in 1832, more than 800 miles from the Cape, near the land of the Thembu, three new cycads, one of which had already been named Zamia lehmanniana by Ecklon in 1833; his diagnosis cites that name (“Ecklon in literis”). The locality of the type is not known (The World List of Cycads).

Two names are placed in synonymy by The World List of Cycads: Encephalartos elongatus Lehm. (1838) and Encephalartos lehmannii f. dentatus Regel ex J.Schust. (1932), a form with toothed leaflets. Species+ also lists Encephalartos spinulosus. For more than a century the species was understood in a broad sense: Hutchinson and Rattray (1933), then Henderson (1945), included in it the plants that Dyer named Encephalartos trispinosus in 1965, and most authors also placed in it those he described the same year as Encephalartos princeps. Dyer separated these species mainly on the faces of the female cone scales: almost smooth in Encephalartos lehmannii, ribbed in Encephalartos horridus, wrinkled in Encephalartos trispinosus, warty in Encephalartos princeps. For the reader, this means that older mentions of Encephalartos lehmannii, in the literature as on labels, may refer to any of these species.

Etymology and history

The epithet honours Johann Georg Christian Lehmann (1792–1860), German botanist and director of the Hamburg botanic garden, who created the genus Encephalartos (Haynes, 2022, cited by The World List of Cycads; PlantZAfrica). Contrary to what is sometimes written, Lehmann did not name the species after himself: he took up the name chosen by Ecklon, who had called it Zamia lehmanniana. The genus name means “bread in the head”, because bread was made from the pith of these plants in their homeland (Lehmann, 1834).

The species was grown early in Europe: the 1897 catalogue of plants grown in the open in Thomas Hanbury’s garden at La Mortola, near Ventimiglia on the Italian Riviera, already lists it, as does the Hortus Mortolensis of 1912. PlantZAfrica recalls that many plants were once taken from the wild for cultivation.

Common names

In English, PlantZAfrica and Species+ call it the Karoo cycad, after the semi-arid region where it grows. No Afrikaans or Xhosa name specific to the species is documented in a verifiable source.

In the wild

Encephalartos lehmannii is endemic to South Africa. Dyer (1965) places it mainly on the sandstone hills and mountains of the Cape, from around Willowmore and Steytlerville to Uitenhage and Pearston: in the Uitenhage district it occupies the Klein Winterberg mountains, and elsewhere the catchments of the Groot and Sundays rivers. The World List of Cycads gives the Eastern Cape; PlantZAfrica speaks of the interior of the Eastern Cape, in the catchments of several rivers.

Its habitat is semi-arid, with 250 to 350 mm of rain a year, mostly in summer and very erratic; the plant survives long droughts. Summers are very hot and winters cold, with frequent frosts. It grows in full sun, on sandstone hills and mountain slopes, sometimes in small groups on hard, open ground at the edge of dry watercourses, often surrounded by thorn scrub, aloes and euphorbias; this vegetation burns less often than some grasslands (PlantZAfrica). According to PlantZAfrica, its seeds can germinate even when only light mists provide moisture.

Conservation status and regulation

Encephalartos lehmannii is listed as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List, under criteria A2acd+4acd, which concern a past and ongoing population reduction. The assessment, by J.D. Bösenberg, is dated 29 May 2020 and was published in 2022 (The World List of Cycads, GBIF, Crossref).

The IUCN cycad action plan (Donaldson, 2003) then listed it as Near Threatened (NT), with 5,000 to 7,000 plants, a low rate of decline, over-collection as the main threat and minor habitat loss; the species occurred in protected areas. It had been considered Rare in 1997. SANBI has published no non-detriment finding document for this species; the one on Encephalartos horridus (2023) recalls that the collection of wild cycads is banned throughout South Africa, except for conservation or control purposes.

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; for artificially propagated plants from South Africa, the EU Scientific Review Group issued a positive opinion on 20 June 2011, limited to plants with a caudex up to 15 cm in diameter, still in force; a new consultation covering the whole genus has been open since 16 September 2026.

These notes do not replace the official texts: check Species+ and EUR-Lex before any purchase or import, and ask for documents proving that a plant was propagated in cultivation.

Growing Encephalartos lehmannii

PlantZAfrica describes Encephalartos lehmannii as an easy, extremely hardy cycad, suited to temperate regions including semi-arid ones. It needs neutral to alkaline, very well-drained soil, little water and full sun: in shade and with too much moisture, the leaves lose their metallic blue and turn green.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Jungle Music writes, on an undated page, that along the Californian coast the species takes full sun or part-day sun, that it should be mounded in heavy or clay soil, that desert areas of California can grow it in sun or part sun, while harsher areas such as Arizona should give it only a few hours of direct sun; it recommends planting it where watering can be controlled, in the foreground, but far enough from a path not to be pricked.

The longest European record comes from Roussillon, in the south of France. A grower describes on the Fous de palmiers forum (2011–2014) a plant set in the ground in full sun around 1999–2000, when it had only a seedling caudex of 3 to 4 cm:

  • growth was steady from the start: six or seven leaves in 2010, eight in June 2012, a crown more than a metre across in 2012 and a caudex 24 to 25 cm in diameter in August 2014;
  • he waters it a little in summer, a moderate watering every fortnight, or by deep, widely spaced waterings as soon as the heat has set in, at the end of May; the plant flushes around mid-June or in July and has never made two flushes in a year;
  • autumn rains, sometimes 300 to 400 mm in a few days, have never caused it any trouble, the drainage being good;
  • in August 2026 he judged it tougher than his Encephalartos horridus.

In Corse-du-Sud, another grower reports on the same forum (August 2014) that his two plants, young seedlings transplanted some fifteen years earlier, took four or five years to get going, then produced more leaves every year; their caudices were about 18 cm across, and one bore its first cone, a male, that year. The Villa Thuret, the botanical garden of Antibes, grows a plant in the ground (photograph below); no temperature record has been published for it.

Encephalartos lehmannii
Encephalartos lehmannii grown at the Villa Thuret, Antibes, on the French Riviera.

Container cultivation

Encephalartos lehmannii does well in a large pot of a very free-draining mix, in full sun; Jungle Music notes that it can easily be grown on a patio if it gets enough light. In the Var, in south-east France, a grower keeps in a pot a sucker taken from a mother plant, outdoors from April to the autumn and in a glasshouse in winter: it made three leaves in spring and two in autumn 2012, then five in 2013 and five in 2014; its new leaves emerge orange, then turn glaucous green. In the Tarn, a grower keeps one in a pot, in part shade and protected in winter, and finds it among the fastest of his Encephalartos (three leaves in 2013, four in 2014). Italian growers on the Tropicamente forum describe a plant in a pot kept outdoors all year at the Rome Botanical Garden (2012), which had three basal suckers in 2013, and another planted in the ground for a long time on the island of Elba (2012).

Encephalartos lehmannii
Encephalartos lehmannii grown at the Jardin zoologique tropical, La Londe-les-Maures (Var, south-east France).

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In Britain, Cambridge University Botanic Garden lists in its online catalogue an accession received in 1959 according to its number, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Glasgow Botanic Gardens, RHS Garden Wisley and Paignton Zoo declare the species to BGCI PlantSearch. A grower in south-east Essex reports on the Pushing the Borders forum (August 2025) that his plant, in the ground, makes new leaves every year, unlike most of his other cycads (see Cold hardiness).

In the United States, Montgomery Botanical Center in Coral Gables, Florida, holds eight accessions received between 1995 and 2012 according to their numbers; Ganna Walska Lotusland names Encephalartos lehmannii among the notable species of its cycad garden; the Huntington, Descanso Gardens, the San Diego Botanic Garden, the San Diego Zoo and its Safari Park, the Gardens of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, the US Botanic Garden, Longwood Gardens, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Naples Botanical Garden and several Hawaiian gardens declare it to BGCI. Jungle Music reports that it usually has a hundred or more plants in stock.

In Australia, the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria grows Encephalartos lehmannii in outdoor beds at Melbourne Gardens, according to its online census, and the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, the Botanic Garden of South Australia in Adelaide, James Cook University in Townsville and the System Garden of the University of Melbourne declare it to BGCI. A BGCI listing shows that a garden has declared the species at some point, not that a plant is alive today.

Propagation

Encephalartos lehmannii is propagated from seed and from suckers, which transplant readily (PlantZAfrica). To obtain seed, a female cone must be pollinated with pollen from a male of the same species at the right stage; the red seeds are poisonous: wear gloves to remove their fleshy coat.

Growers’ experience shows that a sucker or an imported plant takes time to get going:

  • in the Var, a sucker about 5 to 6 cm across made only one leaf the first year, then none the next, before growing normally (Fous de palmiers forum, 2011–2013);
  • in Roussillon, the second head that appeared after a frost was sawn off over two years, with part of the roots, then put under glass, where it made no leaf the following year; two large roots cut off at the same time and replanted gave nothing (Fous de palmiers forum, 2011).

Seeds, plants and suckers fall under CITES Appendix I.

Pests and diseases

For southern Africa, PlantZAfrica lists for this species:

  • moth larvae and plant lice on the leaves, which contact insecticides control fairly well;
  • beetles and weevils on the cones, which can cause great destruction;
  • beetle larvae that bore into the stems and cause rot;
  • ants and termites attacking the roots and the underground part of the trunk;
  • fungal and, harder still to treat, bacterial infections.

It advises making sure that the insects on the cones are really pests and not pollinators before any spraying. In cultivation in temperate climates, the main risk remains rot of the roots and trunk in cold, waterlogged soil.

Cold hardiness

PlantZAfrica states that Encephalartos lehmannii tolerates moderate to heavy frost; its habitat has cold winters with frequent frosts. SANBI’s document on Encephalartos horridus (2023) adds that the “blue” cycads are more frost-tolerant than the green species. Jungle Music gives an absolute cold tolerance of about −5.6 to −6.7 °C (22 to 20 °F), a nursery rating without stated measurements. Growers’ reports confirm good resistance to dry cold, with clear limits. 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; an adult with an aerial trunk has no such protection.

Mediterranean and European experience

The most complete report comes from Roussillon (Fous de palmiers forum, 2010–2012), for the plant in the ground described above:

  • for the first three or four winters, the plant was covered with newspaper, then with a container during cold spells; in the early years, the outer half of the leaves was badly damaged below −4 °C (24.8 °F), damage that disappeared as the plant grew;
  • around 2005–2006, a frost of −7 °C (19.4 °F) with daytime thaw damaged the foliage (depending on the message, the grower speaks of a few purplish leaves, one or two of which dried up, or of almost complete defoliation); above all, the head started late and divided in two, a sign, in his view, that the growing point had been affected;
  • in winter 2009–2010, 25 to 27 days of frost, a minimum of −7 °C (19.4 °F) and then 40 cm of snow: leaves slightly purplish, only one scorched, none dried up, and normal growth afterwards, with six or seven leaves the following summer;
  • in winter 2010–2011, about ten days of frost and a minimum of −5 °C (23 °F): some leaves that had been through both winters partly turned russet;
  • in February 2012, −5 °C (23 °F) and twelve to fifteen days of frost, with the caudex protected by pine bark: foliage intact.

The grower concludes that −7 °C (19.4 °F) seems to be the limit of the foliage in a dry winter, and that temperatures below −8 °C (17.6 °F) can reach the heart of the plant. These figures are useful for other Mediterranean-type climates, such as inland California or southern Australia, but they come from a single plant in a very well-drained site.

Elsewhere in Europe the record is less favourable:

  • at Concarneau, in Brittany, trials with Encephalartos lehmannii and Encephalartos natalensis failed in 2008, the plants having rotted after winter 2007–2008, when the grower recorded −4 °C (24.8 °F) (Fous de palmiers forum, January 2009); he does not say whether they were in pots or in the ground;
  • in Ravenna, on the Adriatic coast of Italy, a grower reports on the Tropicamente forum that a young potted plant, outdoors but sheltered from rain and wind, came through −3 °C (26.6 °F) in winter 2008–2009; in January 2010, after snow, the leaves of the last two years were damaged; in February 2010, in an unheated glasshouse, after one night at −7 °C (19.4 °F) and one at −5 °C (23 °F) with days below zero, the plant was completely defoliated, and he wrote in 2012 that it had died;
  • another Italian grower, who gives neither his location nor his method of cultivation, wrote in April 2011 that a single night at −4 °C (24.8 °F) the previous winter had “roasted” all his Encephalartos lehmannii.
Encephalartos lehmannii
Encephalartos lehmannii grown at the Hanbury Botanical Gardens, La Mortola, Italy.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

  • England: a grower in south-east Essex reports on the Pushing the Borders forum (August 2025) that his Encephalartos lehmannii, in the ground, makes new leaves every year, unlike most of his other cycads; minimums there are generally −4 to −5 °C (24.8 to 23 °F), the lowest ever recorded in the garden being −8 °C (17.6 °F), date not given. It is the only published British outdoor report for the species; elsewhere in Britain it is safest under cool glass in winter.
  • United States: at the Juniper Level Botanic Garden, in North Carolina, Encephalartos lehmannii did not survive winter 2013–2014 in the ground without protection, with minimums of −13 to −16 °C (9 to 4 °F) depending on the site; nor did Encephalartos longifolius, Encephalartos princeps and Encephalartos friderici-guilielmi.
  • Australia: the plants in outdoor beds at Melbourne Gardens show that the species is grown in the open in a temperate Australian climate, but no cold record is attached to them.

No botanical source gives a USDA zone for the species; Jungle Music’s rating is a commercial one.

Encephalartos lehmannii
Encephalartos lehmannii grown under glass at the Palmengarten in Frankfurt, Germany.

Toxicity and precautions

No study specific to Encephalartos lehmannii is documented, but the risk is documented in other cycads: Encephalartos contain toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived, a toxin of the liver and the nervous system; the seeds are the most dangerous part. The ASPCA reports vomiting, diarrhoea, liver damage and deaths in dogs, cats and horses that have eaten cycads.

Wear gloves to handle the seeds and the sharp leaflets, 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

No published source describes a traditional use specific to Encephalartos lehmannii. Lehmann (1834) reports, for the southern African Encephalartos as a whole, that bread was made from their pith.

Frequently asked questions

Is Encephalartos lehmannii frost-hardy?

Fairly, in dry cold and in very free-draining soil. In Roussillon, a plant in the ground since about 1999 came through −7 °C (19.4 °F) with damage limited to the foliage, and below −8 °C (17.6 °F) the heart can be affected; it was killed at −13 to −16 °C (9 to 4 °F) in North Carolina. Wet cold is more dangerous than dry frost.

Can Encephalartos lehmannii be grown outdoors in Britain?

In the mildest gardens, perhaps. A grower in south-east Essex has one in the ground that grows every year, in a garden whose lowest recorded minimum is −8 °C (17.6 °F). It is a single report: elsewhere, a pot moved under glass for the winter is safer.

Why is my Encephalartos lehmannii turning green?

Usually through lack of light or too much water: PlantZAfrica explains that in shade and with too much moisture its leaves lose their metallic blue. New leaves sometimes emerge orange or yellowish before taking their colour, as several growers have observed.

How do I tell Encephalartos lehmannii from Encephalartos princeps?

By habit and leaflets. Encephalartos princeps has taller trunks, more crowded leaflets overlapping near the top of the leaf, grouped cones and warty female cone scales; Encephalartos lehmannii has more widely spaced leaflets, shorter trunks and solitary cones.

And from Encephalartos horridus?

Encephalartos horridus has leaflets with twisted spiny lobes and strongly recurved leaves; those of Encephalartos lehmannii are almost always entire, on almost straight leaves. The two species are nevertheless very close genetically.

How much water does Encephalartos lehmannii need?

Little. In the wild it receives 250 to 350 mm of rain a year. In cultivation, a few deep waterings in summer, once the heat has set in, trigger growth; in winter the plant should stay dry.

Is Encephalartos lehmannii dangerous?

Yes. Its leaflets are sharp-tipped and, like all cycads, it should be treated as poisonous, especially its seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Lehmann, J.G.C. (1834). Encephalartos lehmannii. Allgemeine Gartenzeitung 2(11): 86; and Novarum et minus cognitarum stirpium pugillus 6. Hamburg. [Original description; text of the Pugillus read (diagnosis no. 9, discovery by Ecklon and Zeyher, name Zamia lehmanniana).]
  • Hutchinson, J. & Rattray, G. (1933). Cycadaceae. Flora Capensis: 24–44. [Broad concept of the species; cited by Dyer (1965) and The World List of Cycads.]
  • Henderson, M.R. (1945). Materials for a revision of the South African species of Encephalartos. Journal of South African Botany 11: 3–65. [Cited by Dyer (1965) and The World List of Cycads.]
  • Dyer, R.A. (1965). The cycads of southern Africa. Bothalia 8: 405–515. [Description, distribution, distinction from Encephalartos princeps, Encephalartos horridus, Encephalartos trispinosus and Encephalartos longifolius.]
  • Kemp, M. (1985). Focus on Encephalartos lehmannii. Encephalartos 4: 12–17. [Members-only journal of the Cycad Society of South Africa.]
  • Donaldson, J.S. (ed.) (2003). Cycads. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Cycad Specialist Group, Gland and Cambridge. [Status table.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Encephalartos lehmannii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T41934A51048152. [Assessment cited by The World List of Cycads and Crossref.]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.550.1.1 [Etymology, cited by 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. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21958524 [Checklist.]