| Field notes | Solitary. Stem 2.5 m, 4-5 xm diam., armed with bands of flat, black spines to 4 cm, base with small cone of adventitious roots, 10 cm high. Leaves 10, the upper erect, the lower horizontal; sheath 23 cm, heavily armed with black, flat spines to 4 cm; petiole 16 cm, spiny; rachis 90 cm, spiny; pinnae 10-12 per side, inserted in pairs, basal pinnae 13 x 3 cm, middle pinnae 19 x 19 cm (lower of a pair), 28 x 19 cm (upper fo a pair), apical pinnae 26 x 27 cm. Inflorescence bud just opening, interfoliar, erect; prophyll 35 cm, 3 cm wide, unarmed; peduncular bract 105 cm, 1 cm diam. at base, 1.5 cm above, unarmed, brown on upper part, cream at base; peduncle 55 cm, densely covered with slender brown spines to 1 cm; rachis 50 cm, glabrous; rachillae ca. 35, the lower 15 cm, 1.2 cm wide, completely appressed to and fused with rachis, the upper 15 staminate, ca. 5 cm, 0.5 cm wide, appressed to rachis but free. Old inflorescence interfoliar, erect, above the leaves; peduncle 120 cm, densely covered with slender dark-brown spines to 2 cm; rachis 32 cm; rachillae 11 cm, the upper 3 staminate, wilted, the lower 11 cm, staminate for the upper 2 cm, 1.5 cm wide basally, adnate to rachis. |
This record