| Field notes | Caespitose. Stem 9 m tall, 18 cm diam. at base, covered with old spiny leaf-sheaths, so it appears 50 cm wide, irregularly ringed in parts where leaf-bases completely dehisc, cross-section with light brown 5-10 mm thick "bark" (from leaf-sheaths?), a 4-5 cm thick layer of dense, dark sclerenchyma fibres, the center light yellow, parenchymatous with dark yellow sclerenchymatous fibres. Leaves 12, outer ones spreading, central ones erect; sheath absent; petiole surrounding stem, 205 cm long, 20 cm wide at base, gradually narrowing to 5 cm below the blade, copiously provided with black dorsiventrally flattened spines, the largest ones up to 20 cm long and 5 mm wide, above concave, smooth, brown at the base, green towards the blade, the margin between upper and lower side sharp, the basal one half splitting into fibres; blade paripinnate; rachis 570 cm long, round to slightly triangular in cross-section at base; rounded below and triangular above in the middle of the blade, more narrowly triangular towards the apex, green with greyish mealy covering, and with spines irregularly dispersed, mostly above and on the centerline below, somewhat agglomerated in groups, each group with spines of different sizes, the largest up to 7 cm long; pinnae 128 on each side, inserted at even intervals, reduplicate, arranged in one plane, dark glossy green above, with silvery tomentum below, the margin with delicate spines up to 1 cm long, basal pinnae 90 cm long, 2.5 cm wide, central pinnae 118 cm long, 7 cm wide with prominent midrib above, apical pinnae 18 cm long, 2 cm wide. Inflorescence interfoliar, erect; peduncle 130 cm long, the base 5.5 cm wide, rounded, slightly dorsiventrally flattened, with a few dispersed spines up to 1 cm long, green with greyish mealy tomentum; prophyll persistent, inserted at the base of the peduncle, 88 cm long, 13 cm wide at the base, bicarinate, adaxially concave, brown, smooth without spines, abaxially brown, the base tomentose, the apex with a dense cover of 0.5-1 cm long spines, splitting up adaxially except for the basal 12 cm, fibrous; peduncular bract inserted 100 cm from the base, woody, persistent, 120 cm long, 17 cm wide when opened, lanceolate, above longitudinally fissured, brown, basally with fine, soft, up to 1 cm long spines, apically with additional long, flattened spines, up to 4 cm long, below smooth, brown; additional peduncular bracts just below flowering section 5 cm long, 8 mm wide; rachis 50 cm long; rachillae 250 estimated, densely inserted along rachis; the base with one femaleflower inserted in cup-shaped expansions, the middle 4-5 cm sterile, often with geniculate bend, apical 10 cm swollen with male flowers densely inserted in sunken pits. Duplicates:AAU, QCA, QCNE |
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