| Description |
Plant stooling profusely; suckers vertical, originating close
to parent plant; pseudostem slender 0.5 - 2 m high, 3 - 6 cm in diameter, light green with
purplish blotches.
Leaf
petioles green with sparse purple blotches, 20 - 42 cm long, petiole canal open with erect
margins, slightly winged not clasping the pseudostem, petiole margins with purple lines.
Leaf blades oblong, up to 1.5 m long. 25 - 40 cm wide, upper and lower surface light
green, dull, leaf base pointed, asymmetric, hardly any wax on surface, midrib green, leaf
corrugation striped, cigar leaf green. Bract leaves 2, basal portion orange-red, tip
green, leaflike.
Inflorescence
erect, its peduncle 10 - 15 cm long, smooth, yellow-green; flower bud ovoid, 10 cm long, 4
- 6 cm wide, bract colour orange-red on the outside, paler on the inside, apex yellow,
bracts greatly overlap, lifting 2 or more at a time, not revolute, smooth, not waxy,
strongly grooved.
Basal
flowers female, 2 - 3 per bract, compound tepal yellow, 2.5 - 2.8 cm long, tip greenish,
free tepal cream, closely appressed to the large orange stigma. Stamens infertile, 5,
short, inserted at the base of the style. Ovary yellow, smooth, about 5 mm long, pedicel
almost indistinguishable from ovary.
Male
bud in advanced flowering erect, 10 cm long, 4 cm wide. Bracts orange-red on the external
face, paler on the internal face, tip yellow, greatly overlapping, several bracts lifted
at any one time, persistent, turning brown and falling off at a later stage.
Male
flowers 3 per bract; compound tepal yellow-orange, lobe green, longitudinally grooved;
free tepal yellow- orange, rectangular, boat-shaped, slightly longer than compound tepal.
Fertile stamens 5 as long as compound tepal, filaments creamy, translucent. Anthers
yellowish orange; style yellowish, stigma orange. Mature male flowers brown, persistent at
its early stages, dehiscent at maturity.
Fruits
yellow, few, 10 - 22, uniseriate, perpendicular to stalk, 2 - 3 per hand, small, 2 - 3 cm
long, 3 - 4 cm wide, straight, seedless, angular, apex blunt; style persistent, brown at
maturity.
[Valmayor 2002] |