Encephalartos princeps funky flush again!

[Tracy 4,840]

An Encephalartos princeps is flushing right now and seems to have a couple of aborted or improperly formed new leaves it was trying to push out.  It did something quite similar last year, when a flush ended up aborting everything but three leaves of the flush.  It's not a tiny young plant, as I have plenty of other Encephalartos which push many more leaves at a similar size caudex.  The interesting part is that it seems to be having difficulty on the same side of the caudex, which faces west.  Leaves emerging from the southern, northern and easterly sides are normally formed, but not the west side.  Photos of the plant and closeups of the caudex with the "funky flush".  One year and I would attribute it to a trauma that I might have missed, but two years in a row of a similar phenomena makes me wonder what is going on.

[Palm Tree Jim 1,021]

Interesting Tracy. Something that happens with my princeps before it flushes, all of the old leaves die off.

In the picture above, yours seems to retain the old leaves.

One of mine is flushing right now, I will snap a picture for comparison.

[Palm Tree Jim 1,021]

Some pictures.

[Tracy 4,840]

3 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Something that happens with my princeps before it flushes, all of the old leaves die off.

So the older leaves on mine represent the two previous flushes.  Both this new flush and the previous one were rather anemic compared to the one prior to that.  Again, I'm not sure why as other things nearby have flushed normally.  It looks like you have a nice flush going on yours, hopefully this flush will stick around longer for you, so you can enjoy multiple flushes, and never have it go completely leaf free.

[5150cycad 595]

5 hours ago, Tracy said:

An Encephalartos princeps is flushing right now and seems to have a couple of aborted or improperly formed new leaves it was trying to push out.  It did something quite similar last year, when a flush ended up aborting everything but three leaves of the flush.  It's not a tiny young plant, as I have plenty of other Encephalartos which push many more leaves at a similar size caudex.  The interesting part is that it seems to be having difficulty on the same side of the caudex, which faces west.  Leaves emerging from the southern, northern and easterly sides are normally formed, but not the west side.  Photos of the plant and closeups of the caudex with the "funky flush".  One year and I would attribute it to a trauma that I might have missed, but two years in a row of a similar phenomena makes me wonder what is going on.

If it happened once I wouldn’t think much of it but happening twice on the same side and same issue is kind of odd. I have had this happen once with princeps before but it was a single leaf and it just died off. Then a month later it flushed a new set of leaves. Maybe it’s forming a second growing point at an early age. I have seen it happen before. 

 

4 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Some pictures.

Half of my princeps completely defoliate prior to a new flush of leaves and the other half hold a couple years of leaves. I wish I knew what causes this. 

[Tracy 4,840]

On 4/25/2018, 2:59:52, 5150cycad said:

 I have had this happen once with princeps before but it was a single leaf and it just died off. Then a month later it flushed a new set of leaves. Maybe it’s forming a second growing point at an early age. I have seen it happen before. 

So when it was all said and done, the remaining leaves flushed out normally and have great color.  It still retains a couple of older flushes as well.  I don't think I'll get a second flush this year, but with the heat it's still possible.

[5150cycad 595]

2 hours ago, Tracy said:

So when it was all said and done, the remaining leaves flushed out normally and have great color.  It still retains a couple of older flushes as well.  I don't think I'll get a second flush this year, but with the heat it's still possible.

Glad to hear it Tracy. That color is great and really stands out in your garden. 

[Palm Tree Jim 1,021]

3 hours ago, Tracy said:

So when it was all said and done, the remaining leaves flushed out normally and have great color.  It still retains a couple of older flushes as well.  I don't think I'll get a second flush this year, but with the heat it's still possible.

Looking great.

Hard to beat princeps.