| Field notes | Siona: "Wa-hó". Spanish: Inayo". A giant solitary tree on terra firme. The base growing in a 150 cm wide and 70 cm high mound of small roots and humus. The trunk 20 m tall, 33 cm in diam at the base, 21 cm in diam below the crown, irregularly scarred at the base, somewhat smooth at the top; internodes 10-15 cm long at the base, 1 cm long at the top; leafscars to 5 cm wide; the base of the trunk covered with mosses and lichens. Crown of ca 13 leaves arranged in vertical rows. Eac leaf without a sheath; the base of the petiole completely encircling the trunk; petiole 225 cm long, margin smooth, gradually tapering to 6 cm wide below the blade. The blade 560 x 240 cm with 234 pinnae on each side, these arranged in groups of usually 4 (-6) separated by ca 10 cm on the rachis, the pinnae stick out in different dirrection so the blade has a fussy appearence, rachis x-sect at center of blade, near the blade top. Inflorescences 3 male, intrafoliar, the base sheathed by 60 cm long dorsiventrally flattened prophyll with fibrously split up apex. Spathe one, inserted 20 cm from peduncle base, total length 195 cm; sheathing part 40 cm, expanded flat roof-like part covering inflorescence 130 cm long, 50 cm wide, apical pointed part 25 cm long, woody 1 cm thick, light brown with longitudinal fissures, persistent. Peduncle 100 cm long (20 cm below spathe, 80 cm between spathe and lowest flowering branches) oval in cross-section ca 4 cm wide. Rachis 75 cm long. Flowering part oval 90 x 35 cm with several hundred flowering branches. Uses: The leafrachis from leaves of young plants without a trunk are (were) used to make blow-gun-darts. The abaxial center part of the rachis is cut out with a machete and scraped smooth and pointed. The fruits are used to make necklaces. Information: Sr. Victoriano Criollo and his wife Angelina. He is traditional chief of the sionatribe. |
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