| Description |
Plant stooling freely and developing long rhizomes which turn
up 2 metres and more away from the parent stem ; pseudostems attaining 4 m. or more in
height, 20 - 25 cm. in diameter at base, green with varying development of reddish-brown
or blackish pigmentation according to age and exposure ; leaf-sheaths and petioles devoid
of wax.
Leaf
blades up to 3 m. long, 60 cm. wide, truncate at apex, rounded at base, petioles 30 - 50
cm. long, their margins narrow, membranous and erect above, closely clasping the
pseudostem at base and very early becoming scarious.
Inflorescence
semi-pendulous ; peduncle velvety with a dense minute puberulence ; basal 2 - 4 (-6)
"hands" female, upper hands male.
Bract
subtending female flowers ovate-lanceolate, about 30 cm. long x 6 cm. broad at base, 13
cm. broad at centre, the apex of the lower bracts obtuse and very slightly foliaceous ;
pale yellow and shining within, dark purple at base without, green streaked with purple
towards the apex.
Female
flowers in the lower bracts about 14, in two rows ; compound tepal 4 - 5 cm. long, pale
yellow, its lobes up to 11 mm. long, with dorsal appendages 2 - 3 mm. ; free tepal about
half as long as the compound tepal, translucent, boat-shaped, about 6 mm. deep and 5 mm.
broad, rounded at the back, smooth, the apex truncate-mucronate ; staminodes 5, longer
than the free tepal, about, 3 cm. long x 3.5 mm. broad, flattened, linear, white, fleshy,
the apex pale yellow-orange and acute or acuminate ; style slightly shorter than the
compound tepal, creamy-white, 2 - 3 mm. thick ; stigma capitate, greyish-brown, about 6
mm. broad and deep, dorsiventrally compressed ; ovary pale green, markedly 3 - 5-angled, 7
- 8 cm. long including the constricted apex (5 mm.) and whitish pedicel (about 2 cm.) into
which it narrows at the base ; loculi 3, ovules about 160 per loculus, scattered rather
than disposed in regular rows.
Male
bud in advanced blooming rather narrowly ellipsoidal, the bracts convolute at the tip.
Bracts dark reddish purple outside, commonly with a yellow margin and often variegated
with, longitudinal stripes of yellow, yellow inside, paling to almost white at the base.
Male
flowers 12 - 16 per bract in two rows, 6 - 8 mm. long over-all ; compound tepal whitish,
its lobes about 5 mm. long ; free tepal less than half as long as the compound,
boat-shaped, with a minute apicula, stamens as long as the compound tepal, at length
slightly exserted.
Fruit
bunch rather lax, the "fingers" spreading and not exhibiting a very strong
geotropic curvature. Individual fruit about 10 cm. long, 3 cm. in diameter,
oblong-turbinate or obovoid, that is, widest near the apex and narrowing gradually into a
long (5 cm.) pedicel from which it is not sharply distinct, obscurely 5-angled at
maturity, very abruptly narrowed at the apex to a short (5 mm.) truncate acumen ; pericarp
pale whitish green on the immature fruit, yellow at full ripeness, 2 mm. thick ; pulp pale
cream colour.
Seeds
tuberculate, irregularly angulate-depressed, 5 - 7 mm. across and 3 mm. high.
(Cheesman
1949g). |