| Field notes | Solitary 6 m tall palm, stem 14 cm in diam., leaf scars inconspicuous basally, visible on upper third, 3.5-4 cm wide below crown, internodes 5-5.5 cm long with longitudinal cracks. Number of leaves in crown 12. Leaf sheath split to the base, not forming a crown shaft. Transition into petiole gradual. Length of leaf base plus petiole around 2 m. Leaf sheath of lowermost leaf green basally for 5-10 cm, covered with ferrugineous woolly tomentum above, disintegrated in fibrous mesh along split. Petiolar region covered with dense felt like tomentum, easy to scrape off, ferrugineous proximally to greyish distally, width below lowermost leaflets 3 cm, rounded with deep furrow adaxially. Rachis 4 m long. Number of leaflets 2x67, fresh shiny green above, whitish below, praemorse apically, longest on the middle of the rachis to 1.2 m long. Inflorescence at staminate anthesis: length of peduncle 85 cm, yellow with ferrugineous scales, rounded to oval in CS, widest diam. at the base 3.5 cm. Prophyll 63 cm long, greenish yellow at the base, disintegrating apically. PD bract 240 cm long, leathery, 0.5 cm thick, covered with greyish to ferrugineous densely felted tomentum, apex hooded and terete for distal 42 cm. Rachis 78 cm long as measured to the base of the apical rachilla. Number of 1. order rachillae 23. The basal 1. order branch in groups of 2-3. The middle 1. order branches longest, to 37 cm long as measured to the base of the apical rachilla. Number of 2. order branches of the basal 1. order branch 11. Branches of the 3. order absent. Rachis and branches covered with brownish tomentum. Rachillae only covered with tomentum basally, the remaining part being cream. Female flowers only at the base of the rachillae. Inflorescence with rather pungent odour, visited by stingless bees. Inflorescence in female phase collected from another gamet growing nearby: similar in branching, texture and colour to inflorescence but larger. Peduncle 7 cm in diam. Length of rachis 100 cm, length of longest 1. order branch 63 cm. Infructescence: with greenish peduncle, covered by ferrugineous hairs, 8-8.5 cm in diam. Rachis 1.6 m long, length of longest 1. order branch 78-80 cm . Fruit diam. 4.5-5 cm, orange to red at maturity, with two aborted carpels visible as knots at the base. Additional material: pickled male flowers (AAU). Duplicates at: AAU, LAE, BRI, K, CANB. |
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