| Field notes | Solitary. Base of trunk growing out of 1 cm wide and 50 cm high mound of ca. 0.5 cm thick roots. Trunk 12 m tall, 26 cm wide at base, grey, internodes ca. 15 cm long, smooth, 18 cm in diam at top, green with thin white waxy cover, internodes irregular 1-10 cm long. Crown of 8-10 spreading leaves. Sheath and petiole 210 cm long, open to the base, sheathing for 2/3 of its length, bending away from the center for the upper 1/3, somewhat fibrous along the margin, 8.5 cm wide below the blade, rounded below, shallowly channeled above, with sharp margins between the two surfaces; rachis 272 cm long, rounded below, shallowly grooved above, with two flat margins on which the pinnae are inserted; pinnae 91 per side, regularly inserted, in one plane, slightly pendulous on each side of rachis, green above, very light brown puberulous below; basal pinnae 40-50 x 1 cm, midlle pinnae 105 x 5 cm, apical pinnae 72 x 0.5 cm. Infructescences 3 with immature fruits, interfoliar, prophyll 58 cm long, 14 cm wide, dorsiventrally compressed bicarinate; peduncular bracts 5, large splitting up and rooting at time of fruiting, a 6th apical bract small, inserted 95 cm from peduncle base, 24 cm long, 5 basal large bracts inserted on the basal 30 cm of the peduncle, 105-203 cm long, cartaceous, brown, with a whitish puberulous indument. Peduncle 114 cm long, 3.5 cm wide at the top. Rachis pendulous, 147 cm long, longest rachillae 70 cm long, inserted in the middle of rachis, basal rachillae 2-3 times branched; rachillae 85 regularly inserted along rachis, fruits globular, up to 2 cm in diam rugose on the outside, mesocarp ca. 2.5m thick, endocarp thin, brown. Seeds eaten by pigs. The trees are left and protected in the pastures so the pigs can feed on the fruits when they fall to the ground. The stem is used for fence poles. The leaves are used for weaving decorations at easter time. N.v.: Palma de Ramo. |
This record
Other records of Ceroxylon echinulatum