| Field notes | Canopy climber. Stem cespitose, ca. 1.5 cm thick, ca. 10 m long, base covered with red rotting leafsheaths and leaf remnants, (the leaves don't abscice but rott on the stem), the upper 4 m with fresh leaves in distichous arrangement, in this part the stem including the sheath ca. 2 cm diam., distance between leaves ca. 12 cm. Leaves in distichous arrangement. Sheath tubular 50 cm long, included in the sheath below for ca. 40 cm, this part smooth and brownish, the apical part exposed, green, spiny with ca. 1 cm long brown, round spines. Petiole inserted 12 cm below the tubular and closed top of the sheath. Petiole 3 cm long, green, rounded below, flat above with a few spines. Rachis 165 cm long, ridged above and below, sparsely covered with flatish brownish black spines below and above, spines to 2 cm long. Pinnae 25 per side, apical 7 ones recurved and modified into hooks, basal 18 lanceolate, acute, with up to 2 cm long spines on the veins above and very occasionally on the veins below but not on the margins. Basal pinna 23 x 2 cm, middle pinna 26 x 3 cm, apical foliar pinna 26 x 3 cm, apical hook like pinnae 1 - 4 cm long. Infructescences two developed, interfoliar. Peduncle 54 cm long, spiny on upper 5 cm, flattened creamy white where it is covered by the leafsheath, flat adaxially, rounded abaxially, 1 cm wide. Prophyll inserted 29 from base of peduncle, 21 cm long, smooth, apically acute. Peduncular bract inserted 45 cm from base of peduncle. Rachis 11 cm long, green without spines. Rachillae 24, 10 cm long at the base, 5 cm long at the apex. Fruits inserted mostly at the basal half of the rachillae. Unripe fruits ovoid 2 x 1. 5 cm, light green. Endosperm homogenous, embryo lateral. |
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