Encephalartos cycadifolius Lehm.

Plants branching from the base; stems up to about 60 cm tall, rarely 90 cm and about 25 cm diam.; bracts about 3 cm long and 2.5 cm broad at base, tomentose on outer surface. Leaves about 60-90 cm long including petiole 10-20 cm long, woolly and with some long straight hairs when young, glabrescent except for densely greyish tomentose pulvinus; rhachis fairly stiff, suberect sometimes slightly twisted; leaflets somewhat glaucous when young, pungent-tipped, upper ones spreading from the rhachis horizontally or forming a wide V, not or only slightly overlapping, reduced gradually in size to base and apex of rhachis; median leaflets 9-13 cm long, 4-5 mm broad, entire, with thickened slightly recurved margins and with 5-6 prominent sparsely pilose nerves on under surface. Cones 1 or 2 from a stem on short fairly stout peduncles subtended by narrow dorsally tomentose bracts 2-7 cm long, densely tawny or off-white tomentose. Male cones subcylindric, 13-22 cm long, 4.5-7 cm diam., narrowing slightly to the base and rounded apex; median scales about 2 cm long, 1.8 cm broad, with lateral ridges; bulla face (with tomentum) 1-2 cm broad and 5-8 mm wide vertically, but only about 2 mm thick vertically without tomentum. Female cones more or less oblong in outline with rounded apex, 20-30 cm long and 4 cm broad; bulla about 3-4 cm broad and 1.5-2 cm thick vertically, with incurved lateral lobes up to 1 cm long, yellowish, with acute lateral ridges upper and lower facet more or less rounded; terminal facet about 2 cm broad and 1.25-1.5 cm wide vertically. Seeds pale orange-yellow through salmon-suffused orange to amber-brown, about 3 cm long and 1.75-2 cm broad.