Encephalartos Species, Bushman's River Cycad

This cycad is often confused with E. horridus, but its leaves are not twisted and it doesn't tend to be quite as blue colored. Ho...Read Morewever, it is still a magnificent plant and should be included on anyone's list if they are collecting rare and great looking landscape plants in Southern California. This species resents warm, humid conditions, though and doesn't thrive in Florida or Hawaii- it will survive, but rarely cone. Like E. horridus, this plant is nasty spiny.

This is a somewhat variable plant with some having quite pale blue leaves and others are a flat green without any trace of blue. Also leaf morphology commonly is not trispinose, with many plants having two spines or only one. It is common to see large plants with all simple, unsplit leaflets, or some with these simple leaflets interspersed with loped or trispinose leaflets.