| Field notes | Siona: "Sirá". Spanish: "Chuchana". Cespitose tree growing on a mound 2 m wide and 50 cm high, of adventitious roots covered with litter and soil. The trunk 8 m long, 16 cm in diam at the base, brown, irregularly annulated by leafscars, the 2.5 basal meters clean, the remaining part covered with old rotting leafsheats from which the blades have broken off at various distances from the base; internodes about 10 cm long. Crown of about 12 leaves; petiole180 cm long and 10-4 cm wide, copiously provided with heavy, flat, black spines, the longest of which are over 10 cm long; blade 520 x 230 cm with 123 pinnae on each side. Inflorescences several on each tree, intrafoliar, erect with a 130 (+) cm long peduncle and 50 cm long rachis on which the female flowers are inserted sessile and the male flowers on branches originating at the base of the female flowers; spathe persisten, brown, woody, spiny, erect. Uses: Mature fruits (mesocarp) used for necklaces. |
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