A moderate to tall unbranched, hapaxanthic, solitary palm growing to a height of 15-20 m, with a diameter of about 30-40 cm. Leaves are pinnate, ascending, up to 8.5 m long; leaflets dark green above and whitish beneath, giving the trees a dirty greenish appearance. Inflorescence usually unisexual, pendulous, often more than 2 m long, arising from leaf axil, peduncle breaking up into a number of flower-bearing spikes; female inflorescences 3—7, formed at the top, male ones 7—15, appearing later and lower on the stem; flowers with 3 coriaceous sepals and a 3-lobed corolla, tubular at the base; male flowers up to 11 500 per inflorescence, with many stamens, greenish to bronzy when still closed, yellowish when open; female flowers up to 15 000 per inflorescence, with a globose, trilocular ovary. Fruits are globose to ellipsoid drupes, 5—8 cm long, fleshy, first green, later turning yellow and black after falling, 2—3-seeded. |
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