Searching for a female partner for the world’s “loneliest” plant

Enlarge / Map from drone mission search for the Encephalartos Woodii in the Ngoye Forest in South Africa. (credit: CC BY-NC)

“Surely this is the most solitary organism in the world,” wrote paleontologist Richard Fortey in his book about the evolution of life.

He was talking about Encephalartos woodii (E. woodii), a plant from South Africa. E. woodii is a member of the cycad family, heavy plants with thick trunks and large stiff leaves that form a majestic crown. These resilient...