Prestoea pubens H.E.Moore

General Description

Stems cespitose with 3-6 stems, rarely solitary, sometimes procumbent and partly subterranean, 1.4- 3.5 m tall, 2-5 cm diam., brown or green, with nodulated roots visible at base. Leaves 4-10, arching; sheath open and not forming a crownshaft, 17-27(-774) cm long, persistent, with brown scales, fibrous on margins, the ligule short or absent; petiole 0.3-1 m long, densely covered with closely appressed, brown hairs, glabrescent; rachis 0.5-1.8 m long, with hairs like those of petiole, glabrescent; pinnae 8-20 per side, regularly arranged and spreading in one plane, subopposite, elliptic or subsigmoid, contracted proximally and distally, distally abruptly and asymmetrically long apiculate, the filiform apex to 10 cm long, the apical pinna irregularly bifid, ± glabrous abaxially, with prominent midvein and several, obscure lateral veins, with thin and inconspicuous ramenta on midvein abaxially; basal pinna 18-32 x 1.8-4 cm; middle pinnae 19-54 x 2.5-8 cm; apical pinna 19-24 x 1.8-4 cm. Inflorescences corymbose, interfoliar, arching, spicate or branched; peduncle 6-50 cm long, 2-7 mm diam., terete, with scattered brown scales or pubescent with soft pale hairs, glabrescent; prophyll (1.2-)4.5-22 cm long, 1.1-2.5 cm diam., glabrous or with scales or hairs; peduncular bract (9-)29-90 cm long, including a 1 cm long umbo, 1-2 cm diam. at middle, covered with appressed, light-brown scales, persistent; rachis 2.5-15 cm long (absent if inflorescence spicate), with stellate, white hairs; rachillae 1-11, 8-32 (-47) cm long, all ± equal in length, ca. 2 mm diam. at anthesis, thickening to ca. 3 mm diam. in fruit, glabrous or with simple to furcate, substellate or stellate, 0.1 mm long, white hairs; flowers in triads almost to apex of rachillae, white at anthesis, the triads very close together, ± sunken in the rachillae; triad bracteole rounded; first flower bracteole obscure, second and third flower bracteoles ± equal, apiculate, 0.3 mm long; staminate flowers 2-4 mm long, sessile or on short flattened pedicels; sepals deltate, 1-1.5 mm long, gibbous, ciliate; petals triangular, 2-4 mm long, glabrous or with tuft of white hairs at apex; stamens arranged on a short receptacle; filaments 1-3 mm long, flattened, adnate proximally to petals; anthers 0.8-2 mm long, oblong; pistillode 1-2 mm long, deeply trifid at apex; pistillate flowers 2.5-3 mm long; sepals very widely ovate, 2 mm long, fleshy, minutely ciliate, glabrous or with white hairs abaxially; petals very widely ovate, 2 mm long, not fleshy; staminodes digitate. Fruits globose, 0.8-1 cm diam., stigmatic remains lateral; epicarp black, glabrous or minutely tuberculate; seeds globose, 6-7 mm diam.; endosperm lightly (then almost homogeneous) to deeply ruminate; eophyll not seen. Understorey palm. Stems solitary or clustered, to 3 m tall and 5 cm in diameter. Leaf sheath open; blade 0.5-2.0 m long, simple or regularly divided into 8-20, broadly lanceolate to nearly sigmoid pinnae on each side, these narrowed at the tip into a slender, up to 6 cm long point. Inflorescence unbranched or with up to 11 branches; peduncle to 50 cm long. Fruits black, globose, 8-10 mm in diameter. Morphology of seedling leaves not known.

Distribution

Patchy in Panama and Colombia W of the Andes, and in a small area on the E slopes of the Andes in Ecuador.

Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Distribution

Nativa en Colombia; Alt. 0 - 1200 m.; Andes, Pacífico.

Morphology General Habit

Arbusto, palma cespitosa

Conservation

Preocupación Menor