34 <div type=
"description"><p>Majestic tree palm. TRUNK
5-
22 (
30?) m, cylindrical or slightly inflated towards the middle,
36-
50 cm diam., near crown
15-
18 cm diam.; internodes
4-
10 cm; wood with tough black fibre layer in the outer part; inner wood soft; bark pale brown-grey (not white, as Fl. Madagascar states!); diameter of base of crown c.
22 cm. LEAVES
16-
25, porrect to pendulous, slightly arching, held on edge in the distal half of the leaf; sheath
30-
50 x
15-
16 cm, green and proximally with cottony white or grey-brown indument; margins ragged and fibrous; petiole
6-
20 cm long,
4-
4.5 x
1.5-
1.6 cm across, adaxially flat with slightly sharp edges, white-waxy and -scaly; rachis green, white and scaly when young,
1.2-
1.7 m long,
1-
1.7 cm wide towards the middle, abaxially almost flat or slightly convex, densely pubescent to glabrescent, adaxially flat in the proximal half, more distally keeled with flat top and with the keel almost as wide as the rachis; leaflets regular, in one plane, stiff to pendulous, attenuate, green to slightly yellow, slightly waxy,
70-
73 on each side of the rachis, the proximal
20-
55 x
0.5-
1.7 cm, the median
52-
64 x
1.5-
3.2 cm (interval c.
2 cm), the distal
16-
42 x
0.4-
1.9 cm, especially abaxially with the veins bearing minute whitish scales, also with a few large brown or grey ramenta on midrib abaxially. STAMINATE INFLORESCENCE multiple in
5s-
7s (Fl. Mad. says solitary), erect, branched to
2 orders,
86-
90 cm; peduncle
32-
45 cm, green, proximally
0.9-
1.1 cm across and densely pubescent, distally c.
0.8 cm across and glabrescent, slightly flattened; prophyll not known; peduncular bracts (based on one collection, cut just above base)
18 cm,
85 cm,
88 cm,
71 cm (the last inserted at
13 cm from the base of the peduncle), abaxially short-pubescent; non-tubular peduncular bract at
15-
30 cm from the base, membranous,
35-
41 x
2 cm; rachis bracts c.
6 x
0.2 cm at the base of the rachis; rachis
52-
89 cm, slightly pubescent; branches
60-
100, dense; rachillae
3-
21 cm long, sinuous in the distal part; bracteole c.
0.7 x
0.4 mm; pedicel
0.5-
1 mm long. STAMINATE FLOWERS with the calyx connate for
0.5-
0.7 mm,
0.6-
1 mm across, free lobes
1.2-
1.3 x
0.7-
0.8 mm, triangular, acute; petals
3.5-
5.8 mm, ovate, acute; filaments
0.4 (epipetalous, adnate for
0.3-
0.4 mm)-
0.8 (free) mm; anthers
3.1-
3.4 x
1.2-
1.5 mm; pistillode
0.5 x
0.6 mm. FLOWERS with slight resinous smell. PISTILLATE INFLORESCENCES solitary, erect or spreading, branched to
1 order,
130-
150 cm long; peduncle
40-
60 cm, proximally
4 x
2.5 cm across, distally
1.2-
2.2 x
1-
1.8 cm across, green, white-scaly; prophyll
13-
16 cm long, adnate for c.
2 cm; bracts narrow,
24-
35 x
5-
7 cm,
52-
65 x
6 (inserted at c.
4 cm from the base of the peduncle),
110-
130 x
5 (inserted at c.
5 cm),
124-
150 x
4.5 cm (inserted at c.
6 cm), abaxially white-scaly; at c.
60 cm from the base with a non-tubular peduncular bract about
20 x
0.7 cm; proximal rachis bract
6-
15 x
0.3 cm; rachis
50-
72 cm, with
125-
146 densely packed reflexed rachillae; rachillae
10-
32 cm,
1.5 (-
2.5 in fruit) mm across, with bulbous base, proximally
3.5 mm across, green with white bloom; pedicel
1-
4 mm long. PISTILLATE FLOWER with the calyx connate for
1-
1.3 mm, free lobes
1-
1.3 x
1.3 mm, triangular, acute; petals ovate/triangular, acute,
3-
3.5 x
2.5 mm; staminodes
6, short; ovary ovoid-conical, slightly shorter than the petals. FRUITS bright red, globose to slightly ellipsoid,
7.5-
9 x
7-
8.5 mm,
1-seeded, with bitter pulp; stigmatic remains subapical to lateral. SEED
5.5-
6 x
5.5 mm. SEEDLING with
2 scale leaves and a bifid eophyll.
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