Description: Solitary dioecious palm, with a short erect trunk to 5 m tall. Leaf base not fibrous; petiole to 2 m, semicircular in cross-section, margins extremely sharp; lamina palmate circular ca 2 m wide; adaxial hastuala conspicuous triangular ca 5 mm high; adaxial folds ca 90, splitting to 10–40 cm to produce uniform stiff single fold segments, ca 4. cm wide; dark shiny green above, densely shalky white below. Male inflorescences to 45 cm, creamy white; female ones erect to 75 cm, creamy white to green; bracts undulate tubular with a triangular apiculate tip; inflorescences axes densely covered with greyish-brown tomentum; rachillae somewhat zig-zag, baring 2 flowers on a short tubercle. Male flower calyx with a basal trigonous tube and 3 spiculate lobes; corolla triangular ca 2.5 x 1 mm; staments 6 borne in two whorls of 3, filaments join at the base; pistillode absent. Female flower calyx forming a tube ca 2.0 mm diam., tipped with 3 short narrow traingular lobes; corolla base forming a solid column 1–2 x 1.5 mm, lobes 3, ca 1.3 mm; staminodes 6 with flattened empty anthers; ovary usually 3 carpels; stigma free, short, outward curved; ovules 1 in each carpel, usually one developed. Fruits rounded, depressed at the base, ca 4.5 x 3 cm; epicarp orange, covered in short pustules; mesocarp ca 7 mm thick, whitish, soft and spongy; endocarp thin. Seed 2.5–3.0 cm diam. |
