Hoedspruit and I: Steve Trollip

“Am I crazy?” Steve Trollip asked as he took the HOEDSPRUIT HERALD on a whirlwind adventure of his lodge, Amafu Forest Lodge in Kampersrus, passionately showing off his extensive cycad collection.

My response was, “Thankfully in this world, we have good crazy and bad crazy. You are all kinds of good crazy.”

We bounced from plant to plant, a full background story being given on each. His passion for cycads being unquenchable and totally contagious.

To the untrained eye, many of the species look almost identical but Steve can spot their subtle differences from far away.

“You see there, that one?” Steve asked, with the bakkie jerking to an abrupt halt. Over a sea of cycads of the same species, he attempted to point one out in particular, explaining in the finest detail the history of that plant.
The chalets at Amafu are even named after some of the plants.

Steve’s love affair with plants began in 1985 when he was given two palms as a gift from a friend, “It was like, vummmmph, it ignited a fire under my bum.”

After being invited to attend a Palm conference, he became aware of the mystical Encephalartos of Africa. On returning to South Africa, he did further research into the viability of becoming a cycad grower.

Motivated by the plight and commercial value of these endangered plants, Steve made the transition to cycads and became involved in the conservation and growing of cycads.

Since then, Steve has visited more than 50 countries throughout the world, attending many botanical symposiums.

His collection of palms alone stands at well over 200 species and he owns cycads from China, Mexico, Cuba, Belize, Australia and Hawaii.

Steve also aims to collect one tree from every country in Africa.

Encephalartos laevifolius was first described in 1969 and was then found in seven localities in South Africa.

The seven locations are disjunct from one another and locally included Mariepskop mountain, Lekgalameetse Nature Reserve and close to the Strydom tunnel. The other four localities are in Mpumalanga and Natal.

In 1989, a study was conducted on Mariepskop mountain and between 40 and 60 colonies were identified, totalling approximately 200 plants. Due to extensive poaching, the species declined dramatically on Mariepskop.

In 2005, the last 11 plants were stolen off of the mountain. Thankfully and coincidentally, the Airforce were carrying out a training exercise over the mountain at the time and observed the perpetrators scattering through the bush.

All of the plants were taken to Moholoholo ya Mati for replanting but only three were to survive the process. As a true kicker for the future of the species, all three of the remaining plants were identified as female.

However, by a miracle thought to have been brought about by the stress put on the plant during the rehabilitation process, one of the plants turned into a male plant, allowing Steve and a team of knowledgeable enthusiasts to collect the pollen and

The majority of Steve’s plants are nurtured from seeds and suckers.

His aim is to re-populate the mountain of Mariepskop with the plants endemic to the mountain, namely E.laevifolius and E.cupidus.

He currently has 200 E.laevifolius of coning size and approximately 100 seedlings. Of E.cupidus he currently has 50 of coning size.