| Field notes | Stems caespitose, up to 4 m tall, 3 cm in diam; internodes 10 cm long, with black dorsoventrally flattened spines pointing outwards and downwards, the spines more abundant and largest towards the top of the internode, almost absent at base. Leaves 6; sheath of lowest leaf 75 cm long and enclosing the stem for c. 5 cm, then split into a fibrous margin, inside concave, smooth, outside rounded, green with brown mealy tomentum and dense cover of black spines to 3 cm long except for the center line; petiole 70 cm long, 1.2 cm wide at the base, 1 cm wide at the top, rounded in cross-section but shallowly grooved at the adaxial base, with dense cover of black spines on the sides and above, smooth below, fewer spines towards the blade; blade 150 cm long, 125 cm wide, pinnate; rachis 105 cm long, green, smooth, spineless, rounded below, triangular above; pinnae 13-17 per side, reduplicate, falcate, long acuminate with fine spines along the margin; 1-4 pinnae at base separated from the remaining ones by 15-25 cm, otherwise equidistantly inserted and oriented in one plane; basal pinnae with 1-2 primary ribs, 73 cm long, 3-6 cm wide; middle pinnae with 1 primary rib, 70 cm long, 3.5 cm wide; apical pinnae with 8-10 primary veins, 69 cm long, 14 cm wide. Inflorescence not seen, only old persistent peduncular bracts, these 35 x 5 cm, inflexed, long acute, densely spiny outside. |
This record