CONSERVATION STATUS:
- Critically endangered.
CULTIVATION:
- Full sun.
- Regular watering with good drainage.
- Frost hardy.
PROPAGATION:
- Fast grower that is readily propagated from seed and suckers.
NATURAL HABITAT:
- Limpopo Province in the Drakensberg range. (Wolkeberg.)
- It grows in valleys with deciduous woodlands on cliffs. The valleys are not too far apart and are situated between the cupidus and dolomiticus localities.
STEM:
- Erect, aerial stem that can attain a length of up to 2 meters and a diameter of 35 cm to 45 cm.
- Stem apex has velvety brown-white cataphylls.
LEAVES:
- Leaves in this species differ considerably and various leaflet forms have been noted.
- The leaves differ according to the area / valley from where the plants originate.
- Some of the leaflet forms are extremely rare.
- The different leaf forms will be discussed as a separate topic.
- Leaves can be 1 meter – 2 meters long, stiff with a downward curve to the apical part of the leaf.
- Leaflets shield one another.
- The colour of the leaves varies from green to dark bluish grey in certain leaf
forms. - Leaflets can have entire margins or teeth on both sides.
- In the robustus form, there can be six teeth on both sides with some leaflets
having lobes.
