| Field notes | Solitary palm tree, stem 3.4 m long, 14 cm in diam, covered with crustaceous lichens except distally, here brownish with very short internodes. Number of leaves in crown 15. Leaf sheath about 20 cm long, transition into petiole gradual. Longest petiole 310 cm long, the basal 60 cm armed with up to 5 mm long spines, greenish with deciduous, ferrugineous ramentum. Leaf sheath of young leaves tubular basally, dissolved in fibrous mesh distally, however with an up to long brown, chartaceous ligule on side opposite to the petiole. Lamina rounded in outline, divided in 36 segments, position of hastula slightly eccentric. Mid segment wedge-shaped, 1.2 m long, 45 cm wide at the apex. Basal segments about 1 m long and 5-7 cm wide at the apex. Three old infructescences: Prophyll 35-40 cm long, 6.5 cm wide at the base. Peduncle 82 cm long as measured to the insertion of the first rachis bract, flattened in cross section, 3.5 x 1 cm. PD bract about 60-65 cm (insertion inconspicuous), brown, thick chartaceous, dissolving irregularly. Rachis bract about 80 cm long, texture and colour like PD bract. Number of partial inflorescences 12-13. Rachis 3.55 m long. Basal partial inflorescence 40 cm long rachis, branched to 2. order, first order rachillae 42. Additional material: photos of habit and leaf sheath (at AAU). Duplicates at: AAU, LAE, BRI, K, CANB. |
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