| Field notes | Caespitose, forming a clump of 4 live and 2 dead stems. Adventitious roots few, 0.5 cm diam., forming a cone at the base of the trunk. Stem 11 cm long, 11 cm wide basally to 8 cm apically; internodes 28 cm basally to 7-9 cm distally; leaf-scars up to 4 cm wide distally; surface longitudinally fissured, the outer surface brown with a black layer under; wood soft. Leaves 8, (+1 sword); leaf-base 80 cm long, 32 cm wide basally, sheathing for the first 10-20 cm on the lowest leaf, this distance increases on younger leaves, thus forming a crown shaft, fleshy wood, smooth, glossy, greenish-brown, margins with 6-7 cm (up to 10 cm) long fibres; ligule present, very short; petiole 50-55 cm long, 3.5 cm wide, rounded below, concave above, green with red to reddish brown indument. Blade 320 cm long, 185 cm wide, elliptic; pinnae 2 x 74, reduplicate and in one plane basally and apically, insertion uneven in the middle part of the leaf, where pinnae are found in pairs, basally split up in groups of 3, 80-85 x 1.5 cm basally, 90-95 x 4.0 cm in the middle, 32 - 3 cm apically, margin lined by a vein, lightly plicate, glossy dark green above, white dewed below, major vein below with a sparse tomentum. Inflorescence bud infrafoliar, borne just below the crown shaft, 100 cm long, 11 cm wide; prophyll 51 cm long, 11 cm wide, split ab- and adaxially, bicarinate, woddy fleshy, yellow basally to greenish brown apically, smooth; peduncular bract 97 cm long, 8 cm at the middle, 11 mm thick, with a solid tip. Infructescence infrafoliar, erect; prophyll and peduncular bract deciduous; peduncle 8 cm long, 4.5 cm wide, round; rachis 14 cm long; rachillae 106, distributed only on the adaxial side of the rachis, 65-70 cm long, 3-5 mm thick, pendent, reddish brown, mealy. Fruits 1.3 x 1.2 cm, globose, pointed, green. Use: Fibres are extracted from the rachis of the leaves and used for baskets etc. Stems are used for house construction, according to Maclovio Anapa & Vicente Tapuyo. Note: Leaf-sheath, prophyll and peduncular bract inhabited by ants. Dupl.: AAU, QCA, QCNE. |
This record