| Field notes | Caespitose palm tree reaching app. 7 m, trunks basally with cone of numerous unbranched, reddish brown adventitious roots or stiltroots, app. 1 cm in diam. and covered with few lenticels. Second tallest trunk collected: 558 cm long from uppermost stiltroots to crownshaft, diam. at breast height 8.5 cm, diam. below crownshaft app. 7 cm; leafscars barely visible basally, increasingly conspicuous towards the apex; internodal lenght to 15 cm basally and 3-4.5 cm apically, lower 9/10 of trunk covered by gray and light gray crustaceous lichens, apicalmost internodes olive green to black and brown freckled. One juvenile spear shaped leaf; one old leaf; number of leaves 9; leafsheath 114 cm long, lower 93 cm encircling, thus forming a crownshaft 8.3 cm in diam. at the bulkiest part app. 50 cm above the base, glabrous, reddish brown, freckled; petiole 29 cm long, 3.5 cm wide basally to 3 cm wide below lowermost pinnae, glabrous, green and white freckled; cross section convex-concave; rachis 181 cm long, glabrous, green and freckled, proximally flattened above, narrowing gradually into a sharp ridge being conspicuous at 94 cm from the base; pinnae 2 x 48 (+1), glabrous, with promonent yellowish midnerve, apically cuspidate with an app. 5.5 cm long tip, largest pinnae 64 x 4.3 cm. Infructescence: Inserted at 6. node below crownshaft, erect, basally encircling ca. 2/3 of stem circumference, with pendent rachillae; peduncle 8 cm long, olive green with freckles basally, to whitish dewed or felted apically, flattened, cross section 2.7 x 1.6 below lowermost rachillae, scars from prophyll and sheathing bract conspicuous, 4 mm wide, the distance in between 1.7 cm; rachis 46 cm long, basally flattened to circular in cross section, green with grayish feltations; number of rachillae 111, scars from subtending bracts not conspicuous; rachillae grayish felted, of nearly equal lenght, to 59 cm long and 4 mm in diam., only the apical ones little smaller. Max 15 fruits pr. rachillae, 1.9 cm in diam., glabrous, shiny, bluish black and spherical. Total number of fruits in one infructescence app. 550. Inflorescence: (collected from another trunk in the same clump): inserted at 2. node below crownshaft; petiole bright creamish yellow, 6.4 cm long; prophyll deciduous inserted app. 2 cm above base, 43 cm long, brown chartaceous to coricaceous, with two app. 0.5 cm broad carinae, splitting abaxially to the base; 1. sheathing bract inserted 3.5 cm above base, 66 cm long, hood shaped apically, acuminate, brown, chartaceous to coricaceous, bicarinate; rachillae to 50 cm, all of nearly same lenght, the apical ones excepted being shorter, bright cream, number of flower triads pr. rachillae ca 100, male flowers shed soon after anthesis, female flowers persistent especially basally. Common name: "Palmicha" Use: Uncooked palmheart edible. From fruits are made a stimulant beverage called "jugo de palmicha", that is sold in Borbón and in Esmeraldas. Duplicates: QCA (7), MECN (4) |
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