Encephalartos villosus female cones, shiny leaves

This pair of Encephalartos villosus female cones on stout green stalks has achieved some of the shiny orange colouring that arrives with ripening. The stalks become about 20 cm long.

In the plant’s natural habitat the shiny red seeds are eaten by purple-crested louries, trumpeter hornbills and also by maggots.

E. villosus hybridises with E. altensteinii and E. lebomboensis (Hugo, 2014; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist).