Encephalartos cupidus R.A.Dyer

Plants unbranched or branched from the base, up to about 75 cm tall, 20-30 cm in diam., covered by alternate series of leaf-bases and bracts; bracts about 5 cm long, lanceolate, acuminate, whitish woolly on outer surface. Leaves about 1 m long, linear to narrowly oblong in general outline, slightly narrowed to apex and to base; rhachis more or less straight or spreading and curved, with the tip up-turned rather than recurved, more or less glaucous-green; pulvinus about 3.5 cm broad and long, woolly on outer surface; petiole-like base 4-8 mm long, up to 10 mm diam., tomentose when young, glabrescent; leaflets more or less glaucous-green, inserted up to 3 cm apart towards base, usually closer and more crowded in the upper half and often slightly overlapping, in V disposition from rhachis, reduced to 2-3 prickles at the base; median leaflets linear-lanceolate, more or less equal-sided, curved slightly upwards, 10-15 cm long, rarely up to 19 cm, 10-13 mm broad, about 17-nerved, usually with both upper and lower margins with 2-5, rarely more, forward-directed sharp prickles about 4-7 mm long and terminating in a single prickle or rarely with 2-3 sub-equal apical prickles. Cones: male and female apparently usually solitary from apex of stems, dissimilar, glabrous. Males cones (nearly mature, slightly dried out) with peduncle 5-10 cm long, subcylindric, about 18 cm long, 5 cm diam. about the middle, narrowed to apex and base; median scales spreading at right angles to axis, congested, 2.2 cm long, 1.7 cm broad; cuneate at base, with microsporangia extending to margins and 3-5 mm from terminal facet; upper surface more or less flat with indication of keel, becoming minutely honeycombed on drying; bulla glabrous, projecting about 5 mm, up to 1.7 cm broad, 6-7 mm thick vertically; upper facet humped in centre with narrow shoulders; lower facet is a continuation of the sporangial surface; terminal facet 4-5 mm broad and 4-5 mm wide vertically, slightly concave. Female cones (immature) 18-20 cm long, about 10 cm in their greatest diam. slightly narrowed to apex, glabrous, bright apple-green, with short stout peduncle, subtended by slender woolly bracts; median scales about 3 cm long; bulla protruding 5-8 mm, 3.5-4 cm broad, about 2.5 cm thick vertically, with lateral ridges extending into incurved lobes about 5 mm long clasping the seeds, with the median clasping lobe broadly rounded (extension of upper facet); upper facet irregularly shaped, sometimes with 1 or 2 indistinct ridges, sometimes more or less rounded, fairly smooth; lower facet receding more or less at right angles from the terminal facet; terminal facet irregular in shape; 2.5-3 cm broad, 1.5-2 cm wide vertically, fairly smooth, with slightly raised rim; seeds immature.