Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea microspadix)

Description

Stems: Clustering, but widely-spaced stems, to 3 m tall and about 1 cm in diameter. Leaves: Pinnate, reduplicate, with slightly drooping, sigmoid leaflets spreading in a single plane and evenly spaced along the rachis, but with broader apical leaflets. Upper and lower leaflet surfaces are green, without spines or obvious tomentum. Flowers and fruits: Pendulous, about 30-60 cm long, branched to one order with 3-6 branches. Creamy white male and female flowers are borne on different plants. The spherical fruits, 1 cm in diameter, are orange-red when ripe. There is also variety with very attractive silver undersides to the leaves. Editing by edric. Field: Clustering, but widely-spaced palms, to 3 m tall with red fruit. Apical leaflets broader than others. Lab: Prominent midrib and multiple secondary veins prominent on undersurface of leaflets. Chamaedorea seifrizii, but C. microspadix has a greater distance between stems in a clump and produces red fruit, while those of C. seifrizii are black when ripe. Habit: Cespitose (growing in tufts or clumps), clustering, erect to leaning, to 3 m tall, forming dense clumps several meters wide. Stems: 1 cm in diam., green, ringed, internodes 5-15 cm long. Leaves: pinnate, spreading; sheath 20-30 cm long, tubular, oblique apically and there light green or whitish, green below but browning and persistent on stem with age, densely and longitudinally striate-nerved; petiole 15-25 cm long, strong, flat or only slightly grooved and green above, rounded, slightly paler green below especially near base; rachis 50 cm long, obscurely angled and green above, rounded and green below; blade oblong; pinnae 9 on each side of rachis or fewer when terminal pair is broader, to 25 x 4-5 cm, regularly arranged, alternate, lanceolate, sigmoid or falcate, velvety green above and glaucous or green below; upper pair often confluent and 2-3 times broader than others, 3 primary nerves, several secondaries and tertiaries visible above and below. Inflorescences: infrafoliar, sometimes breaking through the old persistent sheaths, to 25 cm long; peduncles 10 cm long, 8 mm wide at base, 5 mm wide at apex.