page_title: Encephalartos woodii
section_title: Removal from natural habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Encephalartos woodii / Distribution and habitat / Removal from natural habitat
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: A basal offset of the main stems was removed and sent to Kew Gardens in 1899. Three basal offsets were collected by Wood's deputy, James Wylie, in 1903 and planted in the Durban Botanic Gardens. One specimen was received at the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland in Glasnevin in 1905 where the register records it as "Encephalartos way of E. Alten[steinii]" costing 1 guinea from Sander & Sons. In a 1907 expedition, Wylie collected two of the larger stems and noted that of the remaining two, one of them (the largest of the four original stems) was badly mutilated and he did not expect it to survive. By 1912 there was only one 3 metres (9.8 ft) tall trunk left in the wild, and in 1916, the Forestry Department arranged to have it removed and sent to the Government Botanist in Pretoria.  It is thought that this trunk subsequently died in 1964.
caption: Encephalartos woodii in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
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