Dypsis beentjei (Dypsis beentjei)
Description
Clustering acaulescent palm with stems subterranean and procumbent, forming tufts in the forest undergrowth. STEM about 4 x 1.4 cm, dull brown, bearing robust roots about 2 mm in diam. Leaves about 9 in the crown, ± erect; sheath 7-9 cm long, 2.5-3 cm wide at the base when opened out, pale creamy brown, tinged reddish when fresh, drying reddish brown, with a conspicuous central pale yellow line, the sheath striate on drying, densely covered with caducous dark brown scales; petiole to 55 cm long or more, about 4 mm wide, ± triangular in cross section, pale creamy brown, covered in caducous dark brown scales; lamina narrow-triangular, entire-bifid, to 60 cm long, about 10 cm wide across the two tips, apically cleft to 19 cm, the lobes to 3.5 cm wide at the base, tapering to the shallowly lobed tip, 0.5 cm wide, the lamina base long decurrent on the petiole, lamina leathery in texture, adaxially dark shining green when fresh, with scattered minute punctiform dark brown scales, the mid-line pale creamcoloured, abaxially matt, bearing rather dense apparently caducous dark brown scales of varying size with laciniate margins, particularly along the ribs. INFLORESCENCE interfoliar, erect at first, becoming curved, branching to two orders, ± rectangular in outline; peduncle to 25 cm long, 3 mm in diam., rounded in cross-section, densely covered in dark brown laciniate-margined scales; prophyll to 8 x 0.5 cm, membranous, soon tattering, bearing scattered dark brown scales; peduncular bract long exceeding the prophyll, to 18 x 0.5 cm, membranous, soon tattering, scaly as the prophyll; rachis to 9 cm long, scaly as the peduncle; lowermost 3-4 branches branched with one branch of the second order; rachillae 15-20, 3-5 cm long, c. 6 mm diam., somewhat zigzag, the triads 2-6 mm distant, each sub-tended by a lacinate rachilla bract to 1.5 x 0.5 mm, the rachilla surface partially obscured by dark brown laciniate scales.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Liliopsida
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Order: Arecales
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Family: Arecaceae
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Genus: Dypsis
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