Difference between revisions of "Chrysalidocarpus lutescens"

A graceful clustering palm, in tufts of 4-20 plants. STEMS 1-7 m high, occasionally with 1-2 small branches, 5-12 cm in diam., the base occasionally with a swelling to 30 cm high, 40 cm in diam.; internodes 2-12 cm, yellowish or pale grey-brown, more distally green to grey with waxy white bloom. LEAVES 5-11 in each crown, spiral or more often tristichous, porrect and strongly arching; sheath yellowish with white waxy bloom, (28-) 39-60 cm, 11-15 cm in diam., abaxially with dense scattered scales distally, adaxially orange and glabrous, with slight ligules (to 3 mm) or with rounded shoulders; petiole 19-37 cm long, proximally 1.7-3.5 x 2.5 cm, distally 0.7-2 x 0.8-2 cm, channelled with sharp edges, yellow or yellowish orange, with few abaxial scales, proximally on the adaxial side with a triangular swollen extension to the sheath lining; rachis 1.1-1.9 m long, proximally channelled, in mid-leaf keeled and 1.5-1.8 x 0.9 cm in diam., yellow or yellow-orange, with small scattered scales; leaflets 44-59 on each side of the rachis, regular, stiff, in one plane on each side of the rachis but the leaflets on opposite sides at an angle of 90-120°, adaxially green, abaxially slightly waxy and grey, the proximal 35-66 x 0.6-1.8 cm, median 44-70 x 1.3-3 cm (interval 1.7-4 cm), distal 7-37 x 0.6-1.5 cm (terminal pair joined for up to 3.5 cm), the apices attenuate, with 5-9 faint veins but with only the midrib very prominent on both surfaces, with a few tufts of large ramenta on the abaxial midrib, and with many small scattered glands in long lines on the minor veins (these sometimes absent?). INFLORESCENCE interfoliar, sometimes the fruiting stage infrafoliar, spreading, with spreading rachillae, branched to 3 orders (rarely to 2 or 4 orders); peduncle 34-88 cm long, flattened, proximally 2.7-6 x 1-3 cm, distally about 1.3-2.7 x cm in diam., glabrous; prophyll 31-102 cm, borne at 5-47 cm above the base of the peduncle, 3.3-4.2 cm wide, with narrow wings, split only at the apex for 7-16 cm, with scattered scales; peduncular bract inserted at 38-68 cm from the base of the peduncle, 48-60 cm long, cm wide, closed for the distal 10 cm, with a beak of 2-5 cm, pale brown, waxy and glabrous or with a few scattered scales, abscising and carried up by the lengthening inflorescence and rather quickly deciduous; non-tubular peduncular bracts few, 3-5 x 10-12 mm; rachis 20- 110 cm, glabrous, with 5-13 branched and 8-14 unbranched first order branches, the proximal of these with flattened bases 1-1.5 x 0.6- cm and sub-tended by bracts of 6-7 mm high; rachillae 6-30 cm long, 2-5 mm in diam.; triads distant proximally, more dense distally, inserted in shallow pits; rachilla bracts proud, acute. STAMINATE FLOWERS with sepals 1.6-1.8 x 2-2.4 mm, hooded, rounded, gibbous, keeled; petals connate for 1-1.3 mm to the receptacle, free for 1.3-2.2 x 2-2.3 mm, ovate, acute; stamens 6, uniseriate, the filaments 2.8- mm long, anthers 1.6-1.8 x 0.8 mm, dorsifixed; pistillode 2.5-2.8 x 0.4-0.5 mm. PISTILLATE FLOWERS with sepals 2-2.2 x 2.4-2.5 mm, hooded, neither gibbous nor keeled; petals free, 2.8-3.2 x 2.3-3 mm, orbicular or broadly ovate, with small apicula; staminodes 0.3-0.4 mm, thin, empty; ovary about 3 x 1.4 mm, with short stigmas. FRUIT yellow, ellipsoid to obovoid, 12-18 x 7-10 mm, with a pointed apex; endocarp long-fibrous, the fibres almost free. SEED ovoid with an obtuse apex and a pointed base, 11-16 x 6-9.5 mm, with homogeneous endosperm. Germination adjacent-ligular; eophyll bifid. (J. Dransfield and H. Beentje. 1995)/Palmweb.