This month’s educational article comes from Manny Jooste, our friend in Kirkwood, South Africa.

Manny is a well-known member of our global community, and he has planted and dedicated many trees with the Global Tree Initiative. In this article, Manny aims to raise awareness of an endangered tree very close to his heart: The Broodboom (Encephalartos longifolius).

South Africa is home to some of the world’s oldest and rarest plants, including cycads, known locally as broodbome (translated to English, it literally means Bread Tree). It is said that these remarkable plants first appeared more than 280 million years ago, making them even older than the dinosaurs! Because they have changed very little over millions of years, they are often called “living fossils.”

The bright red cone of the female Encephalartos Ferox.

South Africa has 37 native cycad species in the genus Encephalartos, making the country one of the world’s most important centres of cycad diversity. Many of these species grow nowhere else on Earth, which means that if they disappear from South Africa, they disappear forever. These ancient plants grow slowly in forests, mountains and rocky grasslands, where they provide shelter for insects and small animals. They also depend on specialised insects, especially beetles, for pollination, showing how closely plants and wildlife depend on one another.

The White-haired cycad in South Africa: Encephalartos friderici guilielmi

Sadly, South Africa’s cycads are now among the most threatened plant groups in the world! According to the South African National Biodiversity Assessment, 71% of South Africa’s cycad species are threatened with extinction, and tens of thousands of wild cycads have been illegally removed from nature over the past 30 years, including from protected reserves. Because cycads grow extremely slowly, many taking decades to reach maturity, stolen populations may never fully recover.

One of the greatest threats facing cycads is the illegal wildlife trade. Rare and mature cycads can sell for thousands of dollars, making them attractive to organised criminal networks. Poachers often dig mature plants out of the ground under the cover of darkness before transporting them with false permits or forged paperwork. Some illegally collected plants are even “laundered” by claiming they were grown in nurseries. Conservation authorities have also reported cases where identification microchips used to protect legally registered cycads have been removed or replaced to disguise wild plants as legal ones.

To illustrate that this is in fact an ongoing problem, this news article was published just a week before Manny shared his story with us. The news article states that in the town of Uitenhage, just next to Manny’s hometown, the police recovered a total of 151 protected cycads of various sizes, with an estimated value of approximately R1.5 million (approximately 91,600 USD).

Stolen cycads recovered in Uitenhage.

Most illegally collected cycads are exported to Europe, North America and parts of Asia, where they are purchased by private collectors, botanical enthusiasts and luxury landscape designers. Their unusual appearance, rarity and slow growth make them valuable ornamental plants for private gardens and specialist collections. Unfortunately, this international demand encourages continued poaching from South Africa’s wild populations. Although legal trade in nursery-grown cycads is possible under strict permit systems, illegally collected plants are often mixed into the legal market, making enforcement difficult.

Fortunately, everyone can help protect these remarkable plants. The first step is never to buy a cycad unless it comes from a reputable nursery and has the correct permits and documentation. Buyers should always ask where the plant came from and avoid purchasing rare specimens that cannot be traced to a legal source. If you see suspicious advertisements, illegal plant sales, or evidence of cycads being removed from the wild, report the activity to your local environmental authorities. And of course, sharing information about the importance of cycads also helps reduce demand for illegally collected plants.

To conclude, Manny reminds us that protecting cycads is about more than just saving a single group of plants. These ancient survivors have witnessed hundreds of millions of years of our planet Earth’s history. They remind us that nature is both resilient and fragile. By protecting South Africa’s Broodbome today, we ensure that future generations can continue to learn from and appreciate one of the oldest living lineages on our planet!

Thank you so much, Manny, for sharing these valuable insights with us. We appreciate your passion for Broodbome, and we hope that your story will be shared far and wide!

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Image References:
Stolen cycads image: TrendsDaily News
Red Cone Cycad 
Cycads: Are you living next door to a poacher?

References:
South African National Biodiversity
SANBI, Non-detriment finding for Encephalartos heenanii
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalartos_longifolius
Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan: Cycads