Cycads: The Lowveld National Botanical 
Garden's approach to their management*

Abstract

The practical policy of our Garden with regard to the endangered species of our area is discussed.

The Lowveld National Botanic Garden is concentrating on Encephalartos species. We have more than 1000 species in the Garden. The philosophy behind the planting of Encephalartos seed orchards and the integrated policy with Nature Conservation authorities will be discussed. Remarks on our pollinating techniques will also be discussed, as well as our germinating and growing-on techniques. The amount of seed to be produced will be mentioned, as well as the ways of distributing seed or seedlings produced in the Garden.

The Lowveld National Botanical Garden is one of eight gardens run by the National Botanical Institute (NBI). It is situated in the Eastern Lowveld of South Africa which has a subtropical climate and receives an average of 750 mm of rain per annum, mostly in summer.

The cycad project as run by the Lowveld Garden fulfills two of the main objectives of the NBI, namely:

• To establish collections of threatened plants and to promote the ex situ conservation of rare and endangered plants;
• To make available and promote the use of indigenous plant material, in order to foster an appreciation of, and reduce pressure on, plants in the wild.

Some ten years ago the Garden began in earnest with the collecting of endangered Encephalartos species. However, it soon became apparent that the housing of this collection in the display area of the Garden was impractical, for several reasons. Experimental work could not be easily carried out in an area of the Garden accessible to the public; more plants were needed if a genetically sound population was to be maintained and if sufficient seed was to be produced to meet both research and commercial requirements.

A decision was therefore taken to adopt a new approach to the management of the Encephalartos collection, whereby about 100 individuals of each species were to be planted in seed orchards in an area of the Garden not open to the public. Seeds would be collected from every known cycad locality and established in orchards, each of which would be representative of a particular locality. For instance, the three known populations of E. lebomboensis would be treated as three different taxa and the seed established in three separate orchards. This procedure would minimize the mixing of gene pools and therefore eliminate potential problems caused by outbreeding depression.

The first seed collections of E. lebomboensis were made from Transvaal reserves by the Nature Conservation authorities in 1987 and the plants established in orchards at Hartebeeshoek. In 1990 this entire collection, which later came to include mature specimens confiscated from unlicensed growers, was donated to the Lowveld Garden. The combined holdings constitute one of the most important cycad collections in South Africa, particularly since the Nature Conservation stock included species extinct in the wild.

The following seed orchards have been established:

Species	Total mature plants in seed orchard	Seedlings in nursery	Seed in holding
Encephalartos aemulans	.	1000	.
Encephalartos  arenarius	17	.	.
Encephalartos  cerinus	51	.	.
Encephalartos  cupidus	111	.	.
Encephalartos  dolomiticus	18	.	50
Encephalartos  dyerianus	200	.	.
Encephalartos  eugene-maraisii	13	25	.
Encephalartos  heenanii	107	.	.
Encephalartos  humilus	181	.	.
Encephalartos  inopinus	50	30	.
Encephalartos  laevifolius	50	.	.
Encephalartos  lebomboensis (Jozini)	.	100	.
Encephalartos  lebomboensis (Mananga)	60	.	.
Encephalartos  lebomboensis (Piet Retief)	35	.	.
Encephalartos  middelburgensis	17	.	1000
Encephalartos  natalensis (Hlobane)	.	100	.
Encephalartos  natalensis (Msinga)	8	.	.
Encephalartos  ngoyanus (Jozini)	28	1000	.
Encephalartos  ngoyanus (Ngoye)	20	.	.
Encephalartos  paucidentatus	91	.	.
Encephalartos  umbeluziensis	.	50	.
Encephalartos  venetus	16	.	.
Encephalartos  villosus (Stegi)	10	.	.
Stangeria eriopus	88	.	.

Of the abovementioned plants in seed orchards, the following have already produced seeds: E. cupidus, E. dolomiticus, E. venetus and Stangeria eriopus.

Plants in seed orchards are all hand-fertilised using the dry pollination method whereby male cones are removed from the parent plant when ripe. Pollen is collected, stored and blown by means of a hand pipette on to female cones as they open.

The Lowveld Garden works closely with the Transvaal Nature Conservation authorities who monitor the status of cycad populations in the wild, determine which require augmentation with nursery-grown plants and eventually establish these plants in appropriate habitats. Special consideration is given to critically rare species such as E. dolomiticus and E. cerinus. Other collaborative efforts include the hand-pollinating, by garden staff, of plants in T.P.A. reserves, particularly in cases where few specimens remain or seed is known to have low fertility. The Lowveld Garden harvests 10% of seed thus fertilised.

A small commercial nursery, where surplus plants are available for sale to the public, forms part of the Lowveld Garden cycad management plan. The ready availability of the nursery-grown plants will, it is hoped, reduce the demand for plants illegally taken from the wild. With the seed orchards coming into production, a range of the more common cycad species and two of the rare species, namely E. dyerianus and E. aemulans, are now available as seedlings. When full production is reached (in the year 2000), the seed orchards should be capable of producing a minimum of 50,000 seeds per annum.

This multifaceted management plan is expected to make a major contribution to the conservation of a scientifically and horticulturally valuable genus.

Note: This article was originally published online on the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) website. It is reprinted here with permission from BGCI and the Lowveld National Botanical Garden.

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