Experience: I look after the world’s oldest pot plant It is a giant cycad or Encephalartos altensteinii, native to the Eastern Cape province of South Africa and brought to the UK in 1775 by the botanist Francis Masson. In 1848, the Palm House was completed at Kew Gardens and this giant cycad was moved there. He just keeps on growing, slowly, approximately 2.5cm a year.
The first pic has the wrong plant (a palm, not the cycad) in, typical Grauniad error :-) Here's the correct specimen: File:Cycadales - Encephalartos altensteinii - kew 1.jpg - Wikimedia Commons As to whether it's the oldest pot plant - not! There's some bonsai in Japan which are substantially older, e.g. the Sandai-Shogun-No Matsu in Tokyo known since at least 1610, and possibly 500 years old (ref.; scroll down to #5). This site claims some bonsai specimens are over 1,000 years old...
Pity you are not on the Guardian staff, Michael. Perhaps these egregious errors should be brought to the attention of both author and editor. Daily corrections and clarifications Read the most recent corrections and clarifications column. The Guardian’s policy is to correct significant errors as soon as possible. Corrections appear on the relevant web page and/or in the newspaper. If you see an error please contact the readers’ editor’s office and provide a web link, or the date and page number from the newspaper: Email: guardian.readers@theguardian.com You can also leave a voicemail: +44 (0)20 3353 4736 (please give your name and contact number in case the office needs to call you). You may, in addition, send an email to the article's author: To contact any member of staff Individual staff, whether editorial or commercial, can be contacted using this email format: Firstname.lastname@theguardian.com Let us know what response you receive.
