Encephalartos woodii Sander (1908:257)
Wood's cycad, Wood-se-broodboom
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Encephalartos altensteinii var. bispinnus J.M.Wood in Ann. Rep. Bot. Gard. Natal 1907: 8 (1907)
Conservation Status
Extinct in the Wild (Hall et al., 1980; Scott-Shaw, 1999; Raimondo et al., 2009; Donaldson, 2020; Bösenberg, 2022; Dalrymple et al., 2023; Smith et al., 2023; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024; POWO, 2024)
Last wild record: 1916 (Bösenberg, 2022; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct in the Wild
"Originally described from a single male plant with multiple stems. No other plants were ever found. Some of the original stems were killed through bark harvesting and the last wild plants had been transferred to botanic gardens by 1916."
(Donaldson, 2010b)
Distribution
Ngoye Forest, northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Sander, Henry in: Pearson, R. H. (1908). New plants at Ghent. Gard. Chron. 43(1113): 257.
Other references:
Boon, R. (2010). Pooley's Trees of eastern South Africa. Durban: Flora and Fauna Publications Trust.
Bösenberg, J. D. (2022). Encephalartos woodii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T41881A51057496. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T41881A51057496.en. Accessed on 15 October 2023.
Calonje, M., Stevenson, D. W. and Osborne, R. (2023). The World List of Cycads, online edition [Internet]. 2013-2023. Available from: https://www.cycadlist.org/ [Accessed 20 October 2023]
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Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2024). Plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae045 [Appendix S1]
Crouch, N. R., Smith, G. F., Lotter, M. and Symmonds, R. (2003). Encephalartos woodii - the historically documented ethnomedicinal plant in Southern Africa. Encephalartos 73: 25-28.
Dalrymple, S. E., Abeli, T., Ewen, J. G., Gilbert, T. C., Hogg, C. J., Lloyd, N. A., Moehrenschlager, A., Rodríguez, J. P. and Smith, D. (2023). Addressing Threats and Ecosystem Intactness to Enable Action for Extinct in the Wild Species. Diversity 15: 268. https://doi.org/10.3390/d15020268
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Donaldson, J. S. (2009). Encephalartos woodii Sander. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version 2017.1. Accessed on 2017/06/05.
Donaldson, J. S. (2010a). Encephalartos woodii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 14 February 2015.
Donaldson, J. S. (2010b). Encephalartos woodii (errata version published in 2016). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T41881A92750886. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T41881A10566412.en. Accessed on 10 June 2022.
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http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wood-s-cycad
https://vanishingflora.proboards.com/thread/3/wood-cycad-encephalartos-woodii
https://kruger2canyon.co.za/searching-for-a-female-partner-for-the-worlds-loneliest-plant/