H.B. Pedersen 104017

Group of three individuals (Caespitose?), two of these without stems. Stem 10 m. tall, heavily armed with spines. DBH: 27 cm. No. of leaves 8. Peduncle + leafsheat 196 cm long. Peduncle green, furrowed, with numerous flattened black spines pointing in various directions. Rachis 295 cm. long, as the peduncle but with smaller spines. No. of pinnae: 2 x 141, pointing in various directions. Pinnae adaxially green and glabrous with a yellow midtnerve. Pinnae abaxially greyish. Margins of pinnae with minute spines pointing towards the apex. Middle pinnae 120 x 4.1 cm, apical pinnae thread like, 38 cm long. No. of infrutescences: three, interfoliar. Prophyl bicarinate, 76 x 10 cm, brown with black spines, splitting up for the apicalmost 15 cm. First peduncular bract inserted 134 cm above the prophyl, deciduous. Peduncle green, covered with brown pubescence and heavily armed with black flattened spines, 151 cm long, ovate in cross-section, 2.9 cm wide below basel rachillae. Rachis 72 cm long, green with few black spines. No. of rachillae: 92. Fruits green, glabrous, 4 cm long, 2.9 cm in diameter, nearly mature. (One infructescence had mature fruits, most of which already fallen to the grown). Infructescence no. one with 123 fruits, weighing a total of 1900 grams, infructescence no. two with 257 fruits, weighing 3500 grams. N.V. Oko B‘to (Siona). According to Angelina the mesocarp of the fruits is used as bait when fishing in the blackwater-laguna. The endosperm of the fruits is edible, but mainly consumed by children as a kind of sweet. AAU, QCA, QCNE + 2 dubl. org. no. AAU 67317