Encephalartos woodii

 

There has been a considerable hiatus since my last post. Heres a post about trees to keep you occupied.

E. Woodii has become one of my favorite plants. Being one of the rarest cycads on Earth (actually, the rarest), the population of E Woodii was once prosperous. In the times of Pangea, E. Woodii was more than 20% of the flora at the time! 

"...and I speak for the trees!"

The cycad can grow up to 6 meters in height, and the top layer of leaves make it look pretty damn awesome and prehistoric looking. Which is to say, a dumb observation since E. woodii has been around since the time of the dinosaurs. Also, the trunk looks similar to what one would expect a dinosaur's skin to look like: Scaly and rough, tough and dry. The story of the E. woodii goes:

It is 1895, and John Medley Wood (I would trade my name in a heartbeat for his) is wandering through dense bush. He parts some branches and sees a lone tree growing in a flat area, and approaches it. He likes it immensely, and when his ship arrives, he take a small portion of the tree to grow back at London in the Kew Gardens. Little does he know he just mutilated the last wild member of Encephalartos woodii. However, in the decades to come, Wood (oh my god, I love his name) sparked quite a good bit of conservation efforts. But despite multiple failed attempts to find a female E. woodii, people failed. E. woodii is dioecious, meaning it needs a male and a female in order to make a new tree. Sure, there are clones of the E. woodii, but they are all male. Sure, there are more cycads that resemble E. woodii, but they can't really mate. 

It's the loneliest tree on Earth. I hope not.

The only other members of the woodii family are a different species of cycad found in Africa. There are only two wild ones:

Poor things.

What a sad story of a plant. Lemme go water my bush.