My encephalartos Turneri is making flushing sounds

[GDLWyverex]

Just noticed while making the rouds that the Encephalartos Turneri is going to flush for the fisrt time since I acquired it.

Yeah!!

 

 

Richard

[Tracy]

20 minutes ago, GDLWyverex said:

Encephalartos Turneri is going to flush for the fisrt time since I acquired it.

Encephalartos turneri is an underrated cycad in my opinion.  Hopefully this flush will start going to the super dense leaflet insertion that it is known for.  They can almost look plumose, as the leaflets are so tightly arranged coming off the rachis that some are up and some are down.  Mine is starting to show signs in the crown that it's ready a flush but it's not yet.  They are a nice deep green color too, which contrasts nicely with blue cycads when planted near them!  This is one you will enjoy watching develop Richard!

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, GDLWyverex said:

Encephalartos Turneri is going to flush for the fisrt time since I acquired it.



Richard, is it showing the cupping "boat shaped" leaflets?

[GDLWyverex]

12 hours ago, Tracy said:

Richard, is it showing the cupping "boat shaped" leaflets?

Probably more pronounced with this new up and coming flush as the present crown seems to have been shade grown...

It's getting some sun now. It does have a couple of pups growng.

 

 

Richard

Edited May 3, 2019 by GDLWyverex

[Tracy]

8 hours ago, GDLWyverex said:

Probably more pronounced with this new up and coming flush as the present crown seems to have been shade grown...

As I look at the leaflets, your plant looks more to me like Encephalartos sclavoi, but I have seen plants which I have confused.  Some E turneri have longer leaves and not as dense of stacking as the form I have.  The color of the flush doesn't tell us much either, because E sclavoi can be either green or bronze flushing.  The one thing I have noticed is that E sclavoi will lose it's fuzziness on the base of the rachis after flushing, while the form of E turneri I have holds a woolly white fuzz on the lower rachis long after flushing (some white can still be seen on the prior flushes on mine).  Looking down on a form of Encephalartos sclavoi. I may be wrong, but thought I should make the observation.  Perhaps others can share their experience with either or both species.

[GDLWyverex]

1 hour ago, Tracy said:

As I look at the leaflets, your plant looks more to me like Encephalartos sclavoi, but I have seen plants which I have confused.  Some E turneri have longer leaves and not as dense of stacking as the form I have.  The color of the flush doesn't tell us much either, because E sclavoi can be either green or bronze flushing.  The one thing I have noticed is that E sclavoi will lose it's fuzziness on the base of the rachis after flushing, while the form of E turneri I have holds a woolly white fuzz on the lower rachis long after flushing (some white can still be seen on the prior flushes on mine).  Looking down on a form of Encephalartos sclavoi. I may be wrong, but thought I should make the observation.  Perhaps others can share their experience with either or both species.

That would be a delightful surprise. It was sold as e. turneri, but the vendor isn't a cycad expert.

http://llifle.com/Encyclopedia/PALMS_AND_CYCADS/Family/Zamiaceae/28138/Encephalartos_sclavoi

says that e. sclavoi is quite distinctive and easily identified even without a yellow cone to nail it.

They mention the bluish tint which mine definately has... I'm eager to see what other cycad enthusiast here think

Thanks

 

Richard

[Tracy]

53 minutes ago, GDLWyverex said:

That would be a delightful surprise.

In my opinion, you can't go wrong with either E turneri or sclavoi.  They are both great species.  E sclavoi is quite variable from what I have seen, not only with my plants but with the ones I saw at George Sparkman's where I got mine.  Not only do the flushes vary in color (I have recently posted pictures of both bronze and green emergent in another post), they also can vary from green to blue in leaflet color after the leaflets harden.  The blue ones are obviously the rarer and hence $$$ier.  So if it is sclavoi, you can hope for a blue one.