| Field notes | Stilt-roots c. 25, forming 2.5 m cone, 8 cm diam, round in cross-section, dark brown to black, covered with spines up to 12 mm long, widely spaced. Trunk 21 m tall from top of stilt-roots to base of crown shaft, 17 cm diam at base, 17 cm diam at middle, 10 cm diam at apex, grey, solitary. Leaves 7; crown shaft 140 cm long, swollen at base by presence of inflorescence bud, grey-green; petiole 25 cm long, round below, shallowly grooved above, with dense grey tomentum; rachis 180 cm long, round below, triangular above and striate, with grey tomentum, with 20 pinnae per side; pinnae divided into 2-3-7-7-7-7-8-8-8-8-8-7-8-7-7-4-4-1-1-1 segments, the distal segments arched at apex. Inflorescence bud collected from within leaf-sheath. Infructescence infrafoliar, all parts green, peduncle 28 cm long, 4.5 cm wide at middle, dorsoventrally compressed, glabrous decurved; rachis 21 cm, rachillae 21, oval in diam and 2 cm across at point of insertion, tapering to a uniform 6 mm diam, proximally 37 cm long, distally 29 cm; immature fruits green, oval, 2.5 cm long, 1.8 cm diam. Inflorescence bud from within leaf-sheath; peduncle 17 cm, 3.5 cm wide at middle, ivory-coloured; prophyll 18 cm long, 6 cm diam, bifid at apex, bicarinate, green with purple colour above, splitting apically; first peduncular bract 42 cm long, 8 cm at widest point, lanceolate, ivory coloured below and purple above, with tomentum of hyaline hairs outside, glabrous inside; second peduncular bract 45 cm long, 8 cm wide at widest point, lanceolate, ivory-coloured, with tomentum of fewer hyaline hairs, especially adaxially, third peduncular bract 41 cm long, 7 cm at widest point, ivory-coloured, lanceolate with tomentum of scattered hyaline hairs; fourth peduncular bract incompletely sheathing, 29 cm long, 6 cm at widest point, ivory-coloured, outer surface with few hyaline hairs; peduncle with fifth and sixth vestigal bracts 7 mm long, the fifth abaxial, the sixth adaxial, bracts inserted 2-3 cm apart on peduncle. Duplicates: AAU, K, NY, QCA, QCNE. |
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