| Description |
Plant stooling ; pseudostems 2.5 - 4.0
m high, 20 - 30 cm in diameter at base, deep reddish purple ; leaf sheath and petioles
glaucous, green.
Leaf blades oblong, 3 - 4 m long, 40 - 55 cm wide, truncate at apex,
rounded at base, with unequal basal lamina, green, glaucous, midribs green ; petioles 50 -
60 cm long, their margin[s] almost erect, leaving an open adaxial
channel, rather upright, closely appressed to the pseudostem.
Inflorescence subhorizontal, its peduncle and rachis thickly
pubescent with brown hairs, flowers in the 10 - 16 basal hands female, upper hands male.
Female flowers from 12 - 23 per hand (average 16) in two
rows ; compound tepal white, tips green with filiform appendages ; free tepal white, about
half as long as compound tepal.
Male bud in advanced blooming ovoid, more or less acute, the
bracts imbricate, outer surface green with purple edges, about two-thirds of the length of
the bud, not conspicuously ribbed, subacute at tips, glaucous, inner surface deep reddish
purple at tip and gradually becoming lighter at basal end. One bract lifted at a time,
deciduous.
Male flowers per bract from 8 - 12 (average 10) in two rows 5 - 6 cm long
; compound tepal 4.0 - 4.8 cm long, with an average of 4.5 cm ; white, tips green with 3
filiform appendages about 3 - 4 mm long, the cent[re] [appendage] usually a little bit shorter ; free tepal 2.5 - 3.0 cm long with
an average of 2.7 cm, 1.0 - 1.3 cm wide with an average of 1.1 cm, boat-shaped, white,
apiculate.
Fruit bunch asymmetrical, fruits and pedicels exhibiting
marked geotropic reflex. Individual fruits very seedy, 10 - 12 cm long, 2.0 - 2.3 cm
in diameter, conspicuously 4 - 5 angled, abruptly narrowing at the base into a pedicel of
1.5 cm long, and at the apex into a conspicuous acumen ; pericarp about 2 mm thick, green
at ripening, pulp nearly absent, white ; fruits heavily seeded.
Seeds black, flattened, more or less smooth, 3 - 4 mm in diameter and 5 -
7 mm high [if the seed is
"flattened" these dimensions should perhaps be reversed].
(Valmayor 2002) [drc] |