Stems solitary, erect or leaning, 3-4(-8) m tall, 3-3.5 cm diam. Leaves 8-9, spreading; sheath open and forming a partial crownshaft, 27-50 cm long including in a short ligule, yellowish green; petiole 20-73 cm long, petiole and rachis densely covered, especially abaxially, with woolly, brown tomentum, glabrescent; rachis 45-80 cm long; pinnae 5-7 per side, regularly spaced and spreading in the same plane, the basal ones linear, aristate, the apical ones completely or irregularly non-splitting, or the blade simple, deeply bifid at the apex, punctations present abaxially, with very prominent veins, especially adaxially, ramenta usually present on abaxial surface on midvein; basal pinnae 45-47 x 1-2 cm. Inflorescences corymbose, infrafoliar, becoming horizontal at anthesis; peduncle 8-22 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm diam. at peduncular bract scar, dorsiventrally compressed, swollen at point of peduncle insertion, the peduncle and rachis densely covered with woolly, reddish brown tomentum, glabrescent; prophyll 10-15 cm long, 2-4 cm diam.; peduncular bract 20-85 cm long including a 1-2 cm long umbo, 1-7 cm diam., inserted approximately halfway up the peduncle, densely covered abaxially with appressed brown scales; rachis 8-30 cm long; rachillae 17-60, 12-37 cm long distally, to 8 cm long proximally, 1-3 mm diam. at anthesis, arranged all the way round rachis, swollen at the base, sparsely covered with 0.2 mm long, flexuous, mostly simple, deciduous brown or black hairs; flowers in triads proximally, paired or staminate distally, cream-colored; triad bracteole rounded; first flower bracteole small, rounded, second and third flower bracteoles ± equal, rounded, scarcely apiculate, 0.4 mm long; staminate flowers 3.5-4 mm long, sessile; sepals shallowly triangular, ± connate basally and only briefly imbricate, 1- 1.5 mm long, gibbous, not ciliate; petals obovate, 3- 3.5 mm long; stamens arranged round a very short receptacle; filaments 1.5 mm long, lanceolate, flattened; anthers 1.5 mm long; pistillode 2-2.5 mm long, briefly trifid at the apex, longer than the stamens; pistillate flowers 2 mm long; sepals very widely ovate, 1.5 mm long, fleshy, not or minutely ciliate; petals very widely ovate, 1.5-2 mm long; staminodes digitate; stigmas reflexed at anthesis. Fruits globose, 0.8-1.2 cm diam., the stigmatic remains subapical to lateral; epicarp black, minutely and sparsely tuberculate; seeds globose; endosperm ruminate; eophyll bifid.
Distribution
Northern Range of Trinidad and the Peninsula de Paria of Sucre, Venezuela; ridges and steep slopes in cloud forest at 700-1300 m.
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2023. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2023. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/