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Encephalartos woodii; photograph Andrew massyn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAAndrew massyn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Encephalartos woodii Sander

Zamiaceae

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Encephalartos woodii Sander: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Sander ex J.M.Wood.

No habitat climate
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Encephalartos woodii, photograph author not stated, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsEncephalartos woodii, photograph Andrew massyn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEncephalartos woodii, photograph C T Johansson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEncephalartos woodii, photograph Maurice Levin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEncephalartos woodii, photograph Maurice Levin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEncephalartos woodii, photograph Purves, M., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›

Summary

Encephalartos woodii, Wood's cycad, is a rare cycad in the genus Encephalartos, and is endemic to the oNgoye Forest of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is one of the rarest plants in the world, being extinct in the wild with all specimens being clones of the type. The specific and common name both honour John Medley Wood, curator of the Durban Botanic Garden and director of the Natal Government Herbarium of South Africa, who discovered the plant in 1895.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Encephalartos woodii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Encephalartos

Encephalartos is a genus of cycad native to Africa. Several species of Encephalartos are commonly referred to as bread trees, or bread palms since a bread-like starchy food can be prepared from the centre of the stem. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek ἐγκέφαλος, meaning "head", and ἄρτος, meaning "bread", referring to the use of the pith to make food. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Encephalartos", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: Native range not verified: no WCVP distribution with native status for this name, so records cannot be told from cultivation and no habitat climate is derived. 10 of the 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or to no stated accuracy and fewer than three decimals or by something other than a person's observation, and cannot place a climate cell, though they count for the map and its marker.

Natural habitat

No native range: WCVP lists no region where it is native.
Openly licensed records, not tested against the stated range, framed on where they fall.
NativeWCVP lists no region where it is native; the regions it does list are named here.
Extinct inKwaZulu-Natal · recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedNo verified native range for this name: WCVP has no entry with native status, and a checklist that only reports presence cannot tell a wild record from a garden one. The map shows 10 openly licensed records untested against any range; no map marker or climate is derived from them, and no sheet is built from them. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 2683751 (Encephalartos woodii Sander): Kew's file holds it as Encephalartos woodii Sander (accepted); 28 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.

Photographs

Encephalartos woodii, photograph 1did not loadEncephalartos woodii, photograph 2did not loadEncephalartos woodii, photograph 3did not loadEncephalartos woodii, photograph 4did not loadEncephalartos woodii, photograph 5did not loadEncephalartos woodii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Andrew massyn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; C T Johansson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Maurice Levin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Purves, M., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Other Encephalartos 48 in the reference

Encephalartos aemulans Encephalartos aemulans Ngotshe Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, andy_king50 Encephalartos afer Zamiaceae Encephalartos altensteinii Encephalartos altensteinii Eastern Cape Cycad Photo: CC BY, Henry de LangeEncephalartos aplanatus Encephalartos aplanatus Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, andy_king50Encephalartos arenarius Encephalartos arenarius Alexandria Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, J BrewEncephalartos barteri Encephalartos barteri Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, C T JohanssonEncephalartos bubalinus Encephalartos bubalinus Lake Natron Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, DryasEncephalartos cerinus Encephalartos cerinus Waxen Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, andy_king50Encephalartos chimanimaniensis Encephalartos chimanimaniensis Chimanimani Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, andy_king50Encephalartos concinnus Encephalartos concinnus Runde Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, J BrewEncephalartos cupidus Encephalartos cupidus Blyde River Cycad Photo: CC BY-SA, User:BotBln Encephalartos dyerianus Lowveld Cycad all 49 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Encephalartos altensteinii var. bispinnus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Zamiaceae
Described by
Sander
Native to
not verified
Records
10 georeferenced · 10 open · range not tested

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 10096333 is Encephalartos woodii Sander ex J.M.Wood; the page links Kew's Encephalartos woodii Sander, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry lists no native region
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 28 records of GBIF's key 2683751, Encephalartos woodii Sander (Kew's file holds it as Encephalartos woodii Sander (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22native range not verified: no WCVP distribution with native status for this name, so records cannot be told from cultivation and no habitat climate is derived
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 297146-1 is Kew's for Encephalartos woodii Sander
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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