Stangeria eriopus: Natal Grass Cycad Care and Hardiness

Stangeria eriopus, the Natal grass cycad, is a cycad with an underground stem that grows along the east coast of South Africa, from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal, both in coastal forest and in short, regularly burnt grassland. It is the only species of the genus Stangeria, and it looks so much like a fern that it was first described as one, under the name Lomaria eriopus; it was later long known as Stangeria paradoxa, before taking its present name in 1892. Its leaves may be only 25 cm long in grassland but reach 2 m in forest. The IUCN classes it as Vulnerable and it is listed in CITES Appendix I, threatened above all by the harvesting of its stem for traditional medicine.

Key facts about Stangeria eriopus

Accepted name: Stangeria eriopus (Kunze) Baill. (1892), according to The World List of Cycads and the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP, the checklist behind POWO)
Former names and synonyms: Lomaria eriopus Kunze (1839), the basionym; Stangeria paradoxa T.Moore (1853); Stangeria schizodon W.Bull (1872); Stangeria katzeri Regel (1874)
Family: Zamiaceae (WCVP, The World List of Cycads); Stangeriaceae in CITES nomenclature (Species+)
Common names: Natal grass cycad, Stanger’s cycad (English); bobbejaankos (Afrikaans); imfingo (Zulu); umfingwani (Xhosa)
Natural range: South Africa, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, on a coastal strip between about 27° and 33° 30′ S; Species+ also cites Mozambique and Eswatini (see In the wild)
IUCN status: Vulnerable (VU A2acd+4acd), assessment by J.D. Bösenberg dated 5 November 2020 and published in the 2022 Red List
CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix I since 1 July 1975; Annex A in the European Union
Documented hardiness: leaves destroyed at about −4 °C (24.8 °F); a plant in the ground survived −6 °C (21 °F) in February 2012 in the south of France with all its foliage destroyed (see Cold hardiness)
Light and soil: light to deep shade preferred in cultivation, although wild grassland plants grow in full sun; well-drained, humus-rich soil
Habit and adult size: stem entirely underground, carrot-shaped, up to 20 cm across; leaves 0.25 to 2 m long depending on habitat
In the UK, US and Australia: widely held in botanic gardens; no outdoor planting documented in Britain; four plants in an outdoor bed at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Melbourne
Toxicity: toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin) measured in the stem (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Stangeria eriopus

Stangeria eriopus is recognised by its leaflets: broad and flat, with a strong midrib from which run many fine, almost parallel side veins that fork. No other cycad has this venation, which is what makes the plant look like a fern.

The Gymnosperm Database, after Jones (1993), and PlantZAfrica give the following features:

Stem: underground, fleshy and carrot-shaped, up to 20 cm across; it can branch and form up to ten growing points, each producing one leaf at a time. The roots are swollen and almost tuberous.
Leaves: pinnate, erect or arching, dark green and hairless, 0.25 to 2 m long; the petiole, 10 to 80 cm long, is swollen and hairy at the base and has no prickles. Young leaves are rolled at the tip, like a fern frond.
Leaflets: 10 to 40 per leaf, 7 to 50 cm long and 1.4 to 6 cm wide; the lower ones are shortly stalked, the upper ones joined to the rachis. The margin may be entire, wavy, lobed or toothed.
Cones: the plant is dioecious, with a single cone per growing point. The male cone, narrowly cylindrical, is 10 to 25 cm long and 3 to 4 cm wide; the female cone, egg-shaped, about 18 by 8 cm according to PlantZAfrica, and up to 35 by 10 cm in the Gymnosperm Database. Both are covered with silvery hairs when young and carried on a stalk 5 to 25 cm long.
Seeds: ovoid, 3 to 3.5 cm long, with a fleshy coat (sarcotesta) that turns purplish red when ripe.

Habitat changes the plant a great deal. In grassland, the Gymnosperm Database notes that plants often have a single erect, compact leaf per growing point, with short, leathery leaflets, on a much-branched stem, whereas forest plants carry up to six leaves with thin leaflets and cone less often.

Hybrids

No hybrid is documented. The genus has a single species and no close relative grows in its range. At Kirstenbosch, PlantZAfrica notes that it is the one cycad left to pollinate naturally, since there is no risk of it hybridising with the other cycads in the collection. Plants sold as the “forest form” and the “grassland form” belong to the same species and are not hybrids.

Possible confusion

The classic confusion is with a fern: nineteenth-century botanists made it themselves, and a plant without cones, with leaves rising straight from the ground, really does suggest one. The venation of the leaflets, the fleshy buried stem and, of course, the cones settle the question.

Among cycads, only the Australian genus Bowenia also has fern-like foliage. Its leaves, however, are divided twice (bipinnate), whereas those of Stangeria eriopus are divided only once, and its leaflets have no midrib. Cycas leaflets do have a midrib, but no visible side veins, and they are much narrower.

Taxonomy

Stangeria eriopus is the accepted name in The World List of Cycads and in the WCVP. The species bears the oldest epithet, published by Gustav Kunze in 1839 for a fern, Lomaria eriopus. In 1853 Thomas Moore created the genus Stangeria for a species he named Stangeria paradoxa. In 1892 Henri Baillon transferred Kunze’s epithet to Moore’s genus, as the rule of priority requires, and Stangeria paradoxa became a synonym. The World List of Cycads also treats two horticultural names as synonyms, Stangeria schizodon W.Bull (1872) and Stangeria katzeri Regel (1874). The WCVP adds two more, Lomaria lagopus T.Moore (1853) and Stangeria sanderiana J.Schust. (1932). IPNI also records the combination Stangeria eriopus under the name of George V. Nash (1909), but Baillon’s combination is earlier and is the one both checklists cite.

The family has changed, not the name. Classifications based on morphology placed Stangeria in a family of its own, the Stangeriaceae, often together with Bowenia. The study by Salas-Leiva and colleagues (2013, Annals of Botany), based on several nuclear genes, places Stangeria instead as the sister group of the American genera Microcycas and Zamia, with Bowenia on another lineage. The gymnosperm classification of Christenhusz and colleagues (2011), followed by POWO, therefore places Stangeria in the Zamiaceae. CITES, which follows its 2013 standard reference, still lists it under the Stangeriaceae.

The forest and grassland forms are not recognised as separate taxa by either checklist.

Etymology and history

The epithet eriopus comes from the Greek erion, “wool”, and pous, “foot”: the “woolly foot” refers to the woolly leaf bases (Haynes, 2022, cited by The World List of Cycads). PlantZAfrica relates it to the velvety hairs that cover the leaf stalk when it first appears. The genus honours William Stanger (1811–1854), an English doctor and geologist who was appointed surveyor-general of the colony of Natal in 1845. The Gymnosperm Database calls him “Max” and dates Kunze’s description to 1859; both are errors, since the biographical databases (JSTOR Global Plants) give William Stanger and IPNI dates the publication to 1839.

According to PlantZAfrica, Kunze first described the plant in 1836 from a sterile specimen collected by Drège, which he took for a fern. The accounts of how its true nature was revealed differ. PlantZAfrica writes that Stanger sent a living plant to England, where it produced a cone in 1851. George V. Nash, writing in 1909 in the Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, states that Stanger sent living plants from Natal to the botanic garden at Chelsea in 1851 and that cones were shown to the Linnean Society three years later; Nash also quotes Moore describing the plant as “a fern-like Zamia or a Zamia-like fern”. Wikipedia, for its part, has Stanger observing the cones himself in 1851. The same article by Nash records an early plant in North America: received at the New York Botanical Garden by exchange with a European garden in 1902, it produced its first female cone in the summer of 1908.

Common names

In English the plant is known as Natal grass cycad or Stanger’s cycad (PlantZAfrica; Species+ also gives Natal grass cycad). The South African names recorded by PlantZAfrica are bobbejaankos (“baboon food”) in Afrikaans, imfingo in Zulu and umfingwani in Xhosa. Species+ also lists “Hottentot’s head” in English and Hottentottenhoofd in Dutch, pejorative names. Elsewhere, Species+ gives 蕨苏铁 (“fern cycad”) in Chinese, and the amateur site botanic.jp gives the Japanese name オオバシダソテツ.

In the wild

Stangeria eriopus grows on the south-east coast of South Africa. PlantZAfrica places it from the Bathurst district, in the Eastern Cape (about 33° 30′ S), to just south of the Mozambique border (27° S), usually no further than 50 km from the coast; near the sea it grows only in sheltered places, because it does not tolerate salt spray. The World List of Cycads and the WCVP limit the range to the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. Species+ also cites Mozambique and Eswatini, and Wikipedia extends the range to southern Mozambique: presence outside South Africa therefore remains to be confirmed.

The species occupies very different habitats: full sun in short grassland, light shade under trees and deep shade in coastal forest (PlantZAfrica). It grows mostly on sandy and granite-derived soils, and in the former Transkei it has also been seen on heavy, slightly acid black clay. Annual rainfall ranges from about 1,000 mm in the north to 750 mm in the south, two thirds of it in summer. The average minimum temperature is 14 °C (57.2 °F) in the south of the range and 17 °C (62.6 °F) around Durban, and frost is very rare. In grassland, the buried stem lets the plant survive the frequent fires and regrow.

Pollination was long thought to be by wind. A field study by Procheş and Johnson (2009) found that male and female cones smell of fermented fruit and attract many insects (sap beetles, rove beetles, fruit flies), but that only sap beetles (Nitidulidae) achieved pollination under experimental conditions. Unlike most cycads, Stangeria shows no evidence of cone heating.

Conservation status and regulation

Stangeria eriopus is classed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (VU, criteria A2acd+4acd), following the assessment by J.D. Bösenberg, dated 5 November 2020 and published in the 2022 Red List (doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T41939A50797225.en). It replaces an assessment published in 2010. The category is given by The World List of Cycads and relayed by GBIF from the Red List. The criteria describe a population decline observed in the past and expected to continue, based on direct observation, loss of habitat and exploitation. The main exploitation is the harvesting of the stem for traditional medicine: Osborne and colleagues (1994) estimated that 3,410 plants were sold at the two main outlets in July 1992 alone, and PlantZAfrica, citing this work, specifies about 2,380 kg traded at the Victoria and Isipingo markets in Durban.

The species has been listed in CITES Appendix I since 1 July 1975. International commercial trade is allowed only for artificially propagated plants, with the required permits, and seeds are not exempt. The United Kingdom, the United States and Australia apply CITES through their own legislation and permit systems; in the European Union it is listed in Annex A of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, in the list set by Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026. Species+ was consulted on 31 October 2026. Before buying, importing or selling a plant, check the rules in force with your national CITES authority and ask for proof of its origin.

Growing Stangeria eriopus

Stangeria eriopus is a rewarding cycad provided it is spared frost and waterlogging. PlantZAfrica describes it as long-lived and needing little maintenance once established, an ideal plant for shady gardens and a good pot plant if the container is large enough.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Light: light shade to shade. A 1992 herbarium label from Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu, Hawaii (Bishop Museum), notes that it prefers humid air and filtered sun but adapts to other conditions. A grower in Corse-du-Sud (Corsica, France) reports on the Fous de palmiers forum (April 2017) that the plant looks best in shade, with leaves at least 1.5 m long.
Soil: well drained and rich in organic matter. PlantZAfrica advises planting groups of three or five plants one metre apart, with plenty of mature compost and bone meal in the planting hole, a 50 mm mulch of compost every autumn and a feed in early spring (bone meal, organic fertiliser and a balanced mineral fertiliser).
Watering: regular in the warm season and reduced in winter; the Corsican grower stresses the need for water in summer. PlantZAfrica warns that strong jets of water damage the leaves and recommends gentle irrigation. As in other cycads, the buried stem can rot in cold, waterlogged soil.
By the sea: avoid exposed positions, since the species does not tolerate salt spray in the wild.
Companion plants: in South Africa, PlantZAfrica suggests Plectranthus, Scadoxus multiflorus subsp. katharinae, Clivia miniata, Clivia gardenii, Clivia caulescens and Crinum moorei.

The only durable planting in the ground documented in Europe is the Corsican one: large male and female plants, in the ground for a long time, which cone every year.

Container cultivation

Opinions differ, but they agree on one point: the plant needs room for its roots. PlantZAfrica calls it an ideal pot plant provided the container is large, since restricting the roots slows growth; Jones (1993), cited by the Gymnosperm Database, describes it as easy in pots, even indoors. The Corsican grower, by contrast, finds that it grows poorly in a pot, and a grower in Belley (Ain) and Montpellier (Hérault), France, reports on the same forum (November 2015) that his potted plants, not repotted for lack of space, grew little in two years. A deep container, suited to the fleshy stem, and repotting without damaging the roots are therefore advisable; the Bishop Museum label notes slow recovery when roots are cut during transplanting.

At the Jardin zoologique tropical in La Londe-les-Maures (Var, south-eastern France), a plant grown for about ten years in the ground, in partial shade under trees and shrubs, was weak there; moved into a pot, it now spends the winter in an unheated glasshouse and stays outdoors from Easter to the first frosts, and it grows much better than before. This Mediterranean experience may help readers in comparable climates, such as coastal California or southern Australia, without implying an exact equivalent for any particular place.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

Stangeria eriopus is one of the cycads most widely held in botanic gardens: BGCI PlantSearch (queried on 31 October 2026) lists 87 institutions under this name. A listing shows that a garden has declared the species at some point, not that a living plant is there today, and it rarely says whether the plant grows outdoors.

United Kingdom: eight gardens in BGCI, including Kew, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Cambridge University Botanic Garden, the Chelsea Physic Garden, Glasgow Botanic Gardens, the University of Bristol Botanic Garden and Treborth Botanic Garden. The Garden Explorer of Edinburgh (updated 18 October 2026) and the Cambridge collections portal also list the species. No plant growing in the open ground in Britain is documented.
United States: 22 gardens in BGCI, including Montgomery Botanical Center (seven accessions in its online catalogue), Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (listed in its Garden Explorer, updated 16 October 2026), the Huntington, Lotusland, the San Diego Botanic Garden, the San Diego Zoo, the Los Angeles County Arboretum, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Longwood Gardens, Naples Botanical Garden and the National Tropical Botanical Garden. At the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley, where most cycads grow outdoors, Stangeria needs a glasshouse (Plant Collections Network, 2015).
Australia: four gardens in BGCI: the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney (listed in its Garden Explorer, updated 1 October 2026), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, the Adelaide Botanic Garden and Kings Park in Perth. The Melbourne census, consulted on 19 October 2026, recorded four plants in the African Tunnel Bed, an outdoor bed.

Propagation

Stangeria eriopus is propagated from seed, from leaf cuttings or from pieces of root.

Seed: a male and a female plant must cone at the same time; PlantZAfrica notes that plants grown in a group are pollinated by insects or wind and set viable seed. Seed is harvested as the female cone breaks up, soaked for a day and cleaned of its flesh, stored cool and dry until spring, then pressed level into clean, coarse sand with bottom heat of 25 to 28 °C (77 to 82.4 °F) and watered daily. Germination starts within two months. After ten months the seedlings go into 3-litre bags of a well-drained mix containing a little agricultural lime, then into 30 cm pots within a year; kept in small containers, they stop growing. Jones (1993) reports that cultivated plants can cone after four years and that changes of sex have been seen in cultivation.
Leaf cuttings: PlantZAfrica describes the method. A whole leaf is broken off with a piece of stem, which is essential for rooting; the leaf is cut back to limit water loss, the base is treated with rooting hormone and set 8 cm deep in clean, coarse sand. Callus and roots form within 10 to 14 weeks, and a well-developed root system after 18 months.
Root pieces: the Corsican grower reports on the Fous de palmiers forum (April 2017) that when he lifted a plant, he replanted the top and kept the deep pieces of root, which gave two small plants in two years.

Pests and diseases

The only pest PlantZAfrica reports as harmful to Stangeria at Kirstenbosch is mealybug, which it controls with a systemic insecticide. Otherwise the main risk, common to cycads, is rot of the stem and roots in cold, waterlogged soil. Under glass, keep an eye out for mealybugs and scale insects, as on other cycads.

Cold hardiness

Stangeria eriopus tolerates a little frost, but not hard or prolonged cold. The leaves are destroyed at about −4 °C (24.8 °F); the stem, protected in the soil, can regrow if the ground does not freeze. In its native range frost is very rare, and no institution publishes a measured hardiness threshold for the species. These are amateur and garden observations, of indicative value only.

Mediterranean and European experience

At the Jardin zoologique tropical in La Londe-les-Maures (Var, France), a plant in the ground, in partial shade under trees and shrubs, survived the cold spell of February 2012 with a minimum of −6 °C (21 °F) on the site; all its foliage was destroyed by frost, but it regrew in the warm season. Weak in the ground, it has since been grown in a pot and overwintered in an unheated glasshouse.
A grower in Corse-du-Sud (Corsica, France), in a garden he places in USDA zone 10a/b, reports on the Fous de palmiers forum (April 2017) that he has long grown large plants in the ground that cone every year. He gives no minimum temperature.
A grower in Saint-Sulpice-des-Landes (Loire-Atlantique, western France) reports on the same forum that he lost his plants during the cold spell of February 2012 (post of November 2015). He states neither the temperature in his garden, nor whether the plants were in the ground or in pots, nor any protection. On 12 February 2012 the nearest Météo-France stations recorded −11.5 °C (11.3 °F) at Soudan, 19 km away, and −10 °C (14 °F) at Ancenis, 22 km away.
A grower in Ravenna (Emilia-Romagna, Italy) reports on the Tropicamente forum (February 2012 and January 2013) that his small forest-form plant, bought with a single leaf, produces about one leaf a year and is brought indoors for the winter; he advises a deep pot, a free-draining mix rich in organic matter and sand, and no full sun.
In Naples, the botanic garden grows the species under glass, among the African cycads of its Califano glasshouses (Sibilio, 2019).

Outside the mildest Mediterranean coasts, pot culture with frost-free shelter in winter is the safest method.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No outdoor trial in Britain is documented, and in a climate like that of the UK the plant should be kept frost-free in winter. In the United States, the species needs a glasshouse at Berkeley, on San Francisco Bay, even though most cycads grow outdoors there. In Australia, the four plants recorded in an outdoor bed at Melbourne show that it is grown in the open there.

Toxicity and precautions

Yes, Stangeria eriopus is poisonous. Like other cycads, it contains toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), from which methylazoxymethanol is derived. Osborne and colleagues (1994) measured cycasin at 0.17 % in the fresh stem and 0.21 % in the dry stem, accompanied by macrozamin. Methylazoxymethanol is toxic to the liver and nervous system. No poisoning of pets by this species is documented, but the risk is well established for other cycads, particularly for dogs that chew the seeds. Wear gloves to handle the seeds, and keep the plant out of reach of children and animals. If any part is swallowed, contact a poison centre, a doctor or a vet without delay.

Traditional uses

The underground stem is widely used in South African traditional medicine. According to Osborne and colleagues (1994), it goes mainly into magical preparations but also serves as an emetic, an effect that its unusually high content of sodium sulphate may explain. PlantZAfrica adds that the Xhosa and Zulu use the root as a purgative and against headaches, that Xhosa women with babies wear necklaces of pieces of root, and that it is applied to the damaged teats of cattle. This information is given for documentary purposes only: the plant is poisonous and must not be eaten.

Frequently asked questions

Is Stangeria eriopus a fern?

No. It is a cycad, a seed plant with naked seeds that produces cones. Its veined leaflets fooled botanists: Kunze described it in 1839 as a fern, Lomaria eriopus, and its true nature only became clear when cones appeared in cultivation.

Are Stangeria paradoxa and Stangeria eriopus the same plant?

Yes. Stangeria paradoxa is the name Moore gave it in 1853. In 1892 Baillon took up Kunze’s older epithet, which has priority. The name Stangeria paradoxa is still found in old books.

Are the forest form and the grassland form two species?

No. The World List of Cycads and the WCVP accept a single species. The forest form, with large, soft leaves, and the grassland form, with short, leathery leaves, are variations of the same plant according to its habitat.

Is Stangeria eriopus frost-hardy?

Only slightly. The leaves are destroyed at about −4 °C (24.8 °F), but the buried stem can regrow. At the Jardin zoologique tropical in the south of France, a plant in the ground survived −6 °C (21 °F) in February 2012, with all its foliage destroyed; weak in the ground, it has grown much better since it was moved into a pot. Outside the mildest climates, grow it in a pot kept frost-free in winter.

Does it need sun or shade?

Light shade or shade, preferably. Wild plants also grow in full sun in short grassland, but in cultivation the leaves are larger and finer in shade, in a humus-rich soil watered in summer.

Can it be grown in a pot?

Yes, provided the pot is large and deep. PlantZAfrica calls it an ideal pot plant if the roots have plenty of room; growers who kept it in small pots without repotting saw little growth.

Can I buy a Stangeria eriopus legally?

Yes, if it has been propagated in cultivation and comes with the required documents. The species has been in CITES Appendix I since 1975: wild-collected plants cannot be traded internationally, and seeds are not exempt. Ask the seller for proof of origin.

Is Stangeria eriopus poisonous?

Yes. Its stem contains toxic glycosides (cycasin, macrozamin), like other cycads. Keep the plant and its seeds out of reach of children and animals, and contact a poison centre if any part is swallowed.

Sources

Reference sites

The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15), Stangeria eriopus: https://cycadlist.org/scientific_name/430 — accepted name, publication, synonyms, range (Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal), IUCN category, etymology. Checklist of the IUCN/SSC Cycad Specialist Group, reliable; read on 31 October 2026.
World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP, Kew), Stangeria eriopus, via GBIF: https://www.gbif.org/species/207874537 — accepted name, synonyms (including Lomaria lagopus and Stangeria sanderiana), distribution (Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal). The checklist behind POWO; read on GBIF on 31 October 2026.
GBIF, Stangeria eriopus: https://www.gbif.org/species/2683200 — IUCN Red List category (Vulnerable) relayed by GBIF. Reference database; queried on 31 October 2026.
IPNI, Stangeria eriopus: https://www.ipni.org/n/821923-1 — publication of the combinations by Baillon (1892) and Nash (1909), of Lomaria eriopus (1839) and Stangeria paradoxa (1853). Reference database; queried on 31 October 2026.
Species+ (UNEP-WCMC), Stangeria eriopus: https://speciesplus.net/species#/taxon_concepts/14479/legal — CITES Appendix I since 1 July 1975, EU Annex A (Regulation 2026/1383), family Stangeriaceae, countries, common names. Official CITES and EU database, reliable; consulted on 31 October 2026.
PlantZAfrica (SANBI), Stangeria eriopus: https://pza.sanbi.org/stangeria-eriopus — page by John Winter (Kirstenbosch, November 2006): description, range and habitats, climate, history, uses, trade, cultivation, pollination, propagation, pests. South African reference institution; read on 31 October 2026.
The Gymnosperm Database, Stangeria: https://www.conifers.org/za/Stangeria.php — description after Jones (1993), forms, habitat, cultivation. Specialist database, reliable apart from two errors (Stanger’s first name, the date of Kunze’s description); read on 31 October 2026.
Wikipedia, Stangeria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stangeria — distribution to southern Mozambique, account of the discovery of the cones. Secondary source, used only for these points and cross-checked; read on 31 October 2026.
JSTOR Global Plants, Stanger, William (1811–1854): https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000034832 — identity and dates of William Stanger. Institutional database, reliable.
Plants of Hawaii (Bishop Museum), Stangeria eriopus: https://www.plantsofhawaii.org/detail/{833EDD62-8BF1-404A-B22F-3DCA987CB38E} — label of a 1992 herbarium specimen from Foster Botanical Garden, Honolulu: humid air, filtered sun, slow recovery after root cutting. Herbarium record; read on 31 October 2026.
Fous de palmiers forum, thread “Stangeria eriopus”: https://www.fousdepalmiers.fr/html/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16218 — cultivation in the ground in Corse-du-Sud, propagation from roots, loss in Loire-Atlantique in 2012, growth in pots. French growers’ forum, observations of indicative value; thread read in full in October 2026.
Tropicamente forum, threads “Stangeria eriopus”: https://www.tropicamente.it/forums/topic/stangeria-eriopus/ and https://www.tropicamente.it/forums/topic/stangeria-eriopus-2/ — small potted plant in Ravenna, overwintered indoors. Italian growers’ forum, observations of indicative value; read in October 2026.
BGCI PlantSearch: https://plantsearch.bgci.org/ — 87 institutions declaring Stangeria eriopus, including 8 in the UK, 22 in the US and 4 in Australia. Global database of botanic garden collections; queried on 31 October 2026; an entry shows a declaration, not a living plant today.
Montgomery Botanical Center, online catalogue (BG-BASE, hosted by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh): https://websites.rbge.org.uk/cgi-bin/nph-readbtree.pl/dataset=CYCADS/filename=n132_cyc/firstval=1?ETI=stangeria* — seven accessions. Garden catalogue; queried on 31 October 2026.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Garden Explorer: https://rbge.gardenexplorer.org/ — Stangeria eriopus. Garden’s own catalogue, updated 18 October 2026.
Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Living Collections Portal: https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/collections/collectionsportal/search-results?genus=&species=&family=Zamiaceae — Stangeria eriopus. Garden’s own catalogue; consulted on 19 October 2026.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Garden Explorer: https://fairchild.gardenexplorer.org/ — Stangeria eriopus. Garden’s own catalogue, updated 16 October 2026.
Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Garden Explorer: https://rbgsydney.gardenexplorer.org/ — Stangeria eriopus. Garden’s own catalogue, updated 1 October 2026.
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Living Collection Census: https://data.rbg.vic.gov.au/rbgcensus/ — four Stangeria eriopus in the African Tunnel Bed at Melbourne. Garden’s own census; plant lists downloaded on 19 October 2026 (the census was offline for an upgrade on 31 October 2026).
American Public Gardens Association, Plant Collections Network, “Cycad Multisite” (profile dated 9 November 2015): https://www.publicgardens.org/napcc_collection/cycad-multisite/ — Stangeria under glass at UC Berkeley. Professional network profile; read on 19 October 2026.
Jardin zoologique tropical, La Londe-les-Maures (Var, France) — plant in the ground that survived −6 °C (21 °F) in February 2012 with its foliage destroyed, then grown in a pot; observation published on the French pages of this site. First-hand observation from the garden.
botanic.jp, オオバシダソテツ (Stangeria eriopus): https://botanic.jp/plants-aa/oosiso.htm — Japanese name. Amateur site, used for the common name only.

Bibliography

Kunze, G. (1839). Lomaria eriopus. Linnaea 13: 152. [Description of the species as a fern; reference from IPNI and The World List of Cycads.]
Moore, T. (1853). [Description of the genus Stangeria and of Stangeria paradoxa.] Hooker’s Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany 5: 228. [Reference from IPNI and The World List of Cycads.]
Baillon, H. (1892). Histoire des plantes 12: 68, in a note. [Combination Stangeria eriopus; reference from IPNI and The World List of Cycads.]
Nash, G.V. (1909). A rare cycad. Journal of the New York Botanical Garden 10(115): 163–165. https://www.cycad.org/documents/descriptions/Stangeria/Stangeria-eriopus.pdf [History of the description, Stanger’s plants sent to Chelsea, the New York plant; PDF published by The Cycad Society, read.]
Jones, D.L. (1993). Cycads of the World. Reed, Chatswood. [Description, habitat, cultivation; cited by the Gymnosperm Database.]
Osborne, R., Grove, A., Oh, P., Mabry, T.J., Ng, J.C. & Seawright, A.A. (1994). The magical and medicinal usage of Stangeria eriopus in South Africa. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 43(2): 67–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8741(94)90005-1 [Trade, emetic use, sodium sulphate, cycasin and macrozamin; peer-reviewed article, abstract read.]
Procheş, Ş. & Johnson, S.D. (2009). Beetle pollination of the fruit-scented cones of the South African cycad Stangeria eriopus. American Journal of Botany 96(9): 1722–1730. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.0800377 [Scent of the cones, insect visitors, pollination by sap beetles, no cone heating; abstract read.]
Christenhusz, M.J.M., Reveal, J.L., Farjon, A., Gardner, M.F., Mill, R.R. & Chase, M.W. (2011). A new classification and linear sequence of extant gymnosperms. Phytotaxa 19: 55–70. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.19.1.3 [Classification followed by POWO; Stangeria in the Zamiaceae.]
Salas-Leiva, D.E. et al. (2013). Phylogeny of the cycads based on multiple single-copy nuclear genes: congruence of concatenated parsimony, likelihood and species tree inference methods. Annals of Botany 112(7): 1263–1278. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mct192 [Stangeria sister to Microcycas and Zamia; peer-reviewed article.]
Sibilio, G. (2019). The greenhouses of the Botanical Garden of Naples, Italy. Delpinoa n.s. 56–57 (2014–2015): 69–103. [Stangeria eriopus among the African cycads of the Califano glasshouses; read in October 2026.]
Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Stangeria eriopus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T41939A50797225. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T41939A50797225.en [Current assessment (VU A2acd+4acd), dated 5 November 2020; category from The World List of Cycads and GBIF, date from the DOI record.]
Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. [Etymology of the epithet, 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. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21958524 [Reference checklist; read.]