By the Old Cycad in the Palm House

Outside the Main Gates on Kew Green

Explore Kew Gardens - Virtual Tour

New! Online Discussion Forums - Gardens, Travel, Parliament and more


© 2005 Armchair Travel Co. Ltd. - This page may be used for non-commercial purposes ONLY!
Bad Request

Click here to Save     Click here to Print
Save as Microsoft      Print                  
Word document                            

360° Panorama ©Explore Kew Gardens
360° Panorama

A label on this spectacular tree with its branches at a perilous angle proclaims it to be the "oldest pot plant in the world". This, the world's finest cycad, Encephalartos altensteinii, was collected in South Africa in 1775 by Francis Masson, Kew's first plant collector. It faces the Traveller's Tree from Madagascar, a species of Ravenala.