| Field notes | Solitary palm tree app. 5 m tall; trunk 330 cm long from base to lowermost leaves, glabrous, brown, no leafscars visible, the apicalmost 35 cm with black spines of varying length, up to 5 cm long and pointing down, diam at breast heigth 4.5 cm, diam below lowermost leaf 3.8 cm, with numerous branching adventitous roots basally varying in diam. One juvenile spear shaped leaf; one wilted old leaf; number of leaves 4; basal 4 cm of leafsheath encircling, transition from sheath to petiolar region ill-defined, sheath and petiole brown to green apically, convex-concave in cross section to distally terete with furrow above, 40 cm long, densely covered with black spines of various length up to 7 cm, jutting straight out, the longest ones somewhat flattened; rachis 86 cm long, green, covered by brown to white feltation, proximal 3.5 cm with furrow above, distal part with rounded edge above, below with few spines up to 5 cm long and irregularly distributed. Number of pinnae 2 x 58, irregularly distributed, inserted in groups of 6+11+6+11+ 6+10+8 (one side), distalmost pinnae of each group inserted in one plane, the proximal ones pointing up to 5 degrees above this plane, insertion on rachis horseshoe shaped; lamina above with spines on midnerve up to 0.8 cm long, smaller spines up to 0.3 cm long distibuted on the entire surface, below with fewer and smaller spines, largest pinna to 3.5 x 2 cm. One infructescence: interfoliar, erect and curving, angle to stem app. 5 degrees; peduncle 61 cm long, rounded in cross section, 0.6 cm in diam, brown with black, to 1.5 cm long spines on all exposed parts; prophyll app. 37 cm long, brown, chartaceous, split laterally in both sides app. 10 cm down from apex, the distalmost 24 cm with black, up to 2 cm long spines; sheathing bract 72 cm long, inserted basally on peduncle, green on exposed parts with spines up to 2.8 cm long, particularly spiny abaxially and apically; rachis 21 cm long, brown; number of rachillae 12, brown, to 5 cm long, each with 2-4 fruits; fruits brown with persistent calyx and petals, 1.2 x 0.6 cm; petals and calyx forming a chartaceous involucre surronding the developing pistil. Inflorescence: (description based on juvenile inflorescence contained in bud) rachis 22 cm long, with 52 rachillae; rachillae up to 22 cm long and app. 3 mm in diam, with female flowers basally and male flowers apically, apical rachillae with only male flowers. |
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