Dypsis cookei (Dypsis cookei)

Description

Slender clustering palmlet to 2 m tall, often less. STEMS green, about 6 mm in diam.; internodes 15-17 mm long, glabrous, shining dark green when fresh, becoming striate on drying. LEAVES 6-7 in the crown; leaf-sheaths pale green, tinged purple when young, smooth when fresh, becoming striate on drying, bearing caducous, minute scattered punctiform scales, otherwise glabrous, about 7 cm long, two minute auricles present at the base of the petiole (?always); leaf without sheath 25-35 cm long; petiole 12-20 mm long, about 1.5 mm wide, subtriangular in section, bearing scattered brown scales; rachis 15-20 cm, bearing scattered scales as on the petiole; leaflets 6-8 on each side of the rachis, very narrow, dark blue-green with an almost metallic sheen, mostly composed of one fold but occasion- ally apical pair and the basal leaflets composed of two folds, proximal leaflets 12-16 x 0.6-1.1 cm, median leaflets 17-20 x 0.7-0.8 cm, distal leaflets 12-14 x 1.2-1.4 cm; lamina surfaces glabrous apart from very sparse scattered minute punctiform brown scales. INFLORESCENCE interfoliar, about 38 cm long, only slightly protruding beyond the leaves, crimson-purple throughout, branching to 2-3 orders with about 28 rachillae, the whole branched part of the inflorescence more or less triangular in outline when pressed; peduncle glabrous, about 15- 20 cm long; prophyll about 12 cm long, peduncular bract exceeding the prophyll by about 8 cm, the tip reaching to the level of the basalmost rachilla, the two bracts drying brown and bearing scattered dark brown scales, especially along the margins; rachis about 10.5 cm; rachillae about 25, 2-4 cm long, the longest near the base, about 1 mm in diam. when fresh, bearing triads 1-2 mm apart, the rachilla surface densely pruinose. STAMINATE FLOWER bud about 0.7 mm in diam.; sepals 3 rounded, gibbous, about 0.5 mm in diam., abaxially minutely and densely papillose; petals broadly triangular, about 0.5 mm long, c. 0.5 mm wide, obscurely striate; stamens 3, antepetalous, anthers didymous, about 0.25 mm long, the filaments triangular about 0.2mm long; pistillode pyramidal, about 3 mm high. PISTILLATE BUDS very immature, about 0.5 mm in diam., rounded. Other parts not seen. (J. Dransfield and H. Beentje. 1995)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.