Description |
"Plant large and robust,
densely stooling ; pseudostem somewhat swollen at the base, up to 6 m. tall,
intensely brownish-red pigmented, with green or red undersheaths, slightly waxy towards
the top, most conspicuously so in young suckers ; petiole, the margins narrowly
scarious, inclosed and tightly clasping the pseudostem ; lamina hardly waxy
though greyish in tone, rounded at the base, midribs purple-brown ; juice
watery-milky ; inflorescence oblique or pendulous, far outshot on a rather
slender glabrous peduncle 4 cm. thick ; female flowers about 12 per
bract, the ovary pale green, 6 cm. x 4 - 8 mm. wide, ovules biseriate and about 160 per
ovary, compound tepal creamy shading to pale yellow at the tip, 4 cm. long, free tepal 2
cm. long, slightly corrugated, truncate-acuminate at the tip, stigma bright orange, style
white, staminodes 5, white, very short ; fruit bunch very lax, up to 10
hands of fruit ; fruits biseriate in the centre of most hands (uniseriate in
small bunches), curved-spreading and angular, tapering to the long (4 cm.) pedicel,
acuminate at the apex, ca. 10 x 4 cm., pale whitish-green in colour but not waxy except on
the pedicel and there only faintly so ; seeds flattened-subglobose, 8 - 10 x 5 -
7 mm. deep, intensely rough-warty ; male rachis pendulous, about 120 cm.
long at fruit maturity, flushed purple just above the bud, the bract scars not prominent
and rather widely spaced ; male bud turbinate, high-shouldered imbricate at the tip, about
2.5 times as long as broad ; bracts raised 1-2 at a time, deciduous, not rolled, ovate,
obtuse at the apex, dull purple and finely ribbed, the tips yellowish-green without, deep
crimson to the base within ; male flowers about 20 per bract, biseriate,
the compound tepal 35 mm. long, pale creamy yellow with yellow tips, free tepal
translucent, non-corrugated, truncate and minutely acuminate at the tip, 14 mm. long,
anthers yellow, stigma orange".
(Simmonds
1956). |