| Field notes | Caespiatose with only one living stem. Base of trunk with a ca. 40 cm high cone of adventious roots and soil. Stem 12.3 m long, 17 cm (basally) to 12 cm (distally) wide, greyish and covered with lichens, wood very hard; spines numerous, in bands immediately below the leafscars, up to 4.5 cm. Long but varying, pointing downwards. Leaves ca. 16, upright and bending outwards; leafsheath and petiole without a distinct border, 133 cm long, 13 cm (basally), 7 cm (in the middle) and 4 cm (below the rachis) wide, below light grey and with spines up to 2 cm along the margins and in the middle (these spines no longer than 1 cm), above brown and sulcate margins with a few long fibers; rachis 290 cm long, below grey on the basal part to green apically with up to 1 cm. Long spines in 3 longitudinally bands, above green, blade 310 cm long, 130 cm wide, oblong ovate, hemispherically in outline; pinnae 2 x 128, inserteion reduplicate, evenly distributed but in different planes, 38 x 1.2 cm, 67 x 4 cm in the middle, 31 cm long at the apex and in the proces of splitting up, shining dark green above, green below, pendent at the apex (the last 15-20 cm). Young infructescence, interfoliar; prophyll 23 cm long, 14 cm wide, truncate basally, fibrous distally, yellow basally, with waxy-mealy brown layer distally, the outer 3 cm of margin not sheathing; peduncular bract 1, 81 cm long, 17 cm wide, outside covered with spines to 1.5 cm long, yellow with brown mealy-waxy layer, inside yellow basally to brown on the exposed parts; peduncle 36 cm long, 2.5 cm diam., round to lightly flattened, yellow basally with brown mealy layer, green distally; rachis 27 cm long, green, smooth; rachillae 58, 36 cm (basally) to ca. 30 cm (distally) long, 0.4 cm wide, green, smooth. Developing fruits 1 cm diam., globose oblong, truncate basally, smooth, shining green. Uses: Palmito eaten, fruits are boiled and eaten (an infrutscence values 20-30$). Wood used for floors. Ethnobotanical information: See above. Dupl.: QCA, QCNE. |
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