| Field notes | Cespitose, 8 stems, in pasture. Stems ca. 10 m tall, 9 cm diam., with downwards facing spines at the nodes, longest spines to 4 cm long. Sheaths forming an open cype crownshaft, ca. 70 cm long. Leaves 7, spreading, sheath very spiny, petiole 35 cm long rounded below, channelled above, round margin between the two surfaces, petiole spiny below only. Rachis rounded and spiny below, ridged and non spiny above, 200 cm long. Pinnae 60 per side, evenly spaced along the rachis, subopposite, with spiny margins, arranged more or less in two planes; pinnae s'craight, only slightly pendulous at apex, basal pinna erect 40 x 4 cm, middle pinna 77 x 6 cm, apical pinna 20 x 3 cm. Infructescences two, borne amongst persistent leafsheaths, peduncle erect, laterally pendulous, slightly spiny, 22 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, oval in cross section; prophyll persistent, 22 x 8 cm dorsiventrally compressed, ancipitouse (keeled on both sides), peduncular bract erect in fruit, 60 cm long, 5 cm wide, inserted 2 cm from base of peduncle, sparcely covered with round light brown spines to 1 cm long; rachis 14 cm; rachillae 35, 20 cm long proximally, 9 cm long distally, green, fruiting perianth pinkish red, ripe fruits orange becoming red, subglobose, 1.5 cm diam. |
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