| Field notes | Siona: "Ora", (nombre). Spanish: "Pambil". A solitary tree in rather dense forest on red soil. Base with an inverted cone, 130 cm high and 1 m wide, of numerous adventitious roots, each not black, 3-4 cm diam, copiously provided with white-based spines. Trunk 16 m tall, 17 cm diam at the base, 12 cm diam below the crown, smooth, brown; nodes not visible near the base, 1-2 cm wide below the crown and separated by 7-10 cm long internodes. Crownshaft 110 cm long, 13-14 cm in diam, olivegreen. Crown of 6 spreading leaves; petiole 30 cm long, 5 cm in diam, channeled at the base, round below the blade; blade 350 x 250 cm with 19 pinnae on each side, each pinna with the base twisted on the rachis whereby it becomes fanshaped, divided into segments of which the basal one is the widest. Inflorescence inserted 90 cm below the crownshaft corresponding to 8 internodes; rachis (inclusive peduncle) 50 cm long, 4-5 cm wide, with 7 scars on the peduncle but no persisting spathes, 24 branches of which the 13 basal ones bifurcates immediately and the 11 apical ones are simple, the longest branch to 130 cm long, all branches spreading and hanging down, all opened flowers male, female flowers only in bud, the whole inflorescence swarmed by insects. Unexpanded inflorescence inserted at node above expanded inflorescences enclosed in several spathes and bull-hornlike, 160 cm long. Uses: Stem used for floors in the houses. Leaves for thatching. Information by Victoriano and Julio Criollo, sionachief and his son. And sometimes Angelina Criollo, Victorianos wife |
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