Encephalartos laurentianus

Description

Encephalartos laurentianus, commonly called the malele or Kwango giant cycad, is a species of cycad that is native to northern Angola and southern Congo (Zaire), mostly along the Kwango River. It is the largest of all cycads, with multiple stems both upright and prostrate, each as much as sixty feet (18 meters) in length, and bearing a rosette of massive once-pinnate fronds up to 25 feet (eight meters) in length, forty inches (100 cm) in width, and with a petiole or stalk up to eight inches (20 cm) thick where it joins the stem or trunk. Each stem can be up to four feet (120 cm) in thickness. This is also said to be the fastest growing cycad, producing up to five "flushes" (rosettes, or clusters) of leaves each year.