Encephalartos friderici-guilielmi stem
Author: Ivan Lätti
Photographer: Thabo Maphisa
An imposing, stocky stem has been grown by the Encephalartos friderici-guilielmi plant in the photo. The wide girth arrives with age. Ample leaves at the stem top ascend and spread in a stately presence.
The stem is covered in soft wool and cataphylls, yellowish brown in colour, especially nearer the top. This is interspersed with some persisting rings of removed leaf bases from long ago (Hugo, 2014; Coates Palgrave, 2002; iNaturalist).