Wood’s cycad was discovered in South Africa’s oNgoye Forest in 1895 as a single clump of male plants. No other wild specimen—and no female—has ever been found. The original clump was gradually removed, while its offsets were propagated in botanical gardens worldwide. Because cycads have separate male and female plants, the species cannot reproduce naturally. Encephalartos woodii survives not as a population, but as one male plant copied many times.
Wood’s Cycad
