Salacca stolonifera (Salacca stolonifera)

Description

Loosly clustering understorey palm, up to 4 m tall. Stems creeping to shortly erect, with conspicuous aerial roots. Leaves 6–9 per stem; sheath 30–60 cm long, deeply split, densely covered with brownish, felt-like indument and armed with up to 4 cm long slender black spines, arranged in horizontal groups of 3–7 basally to paired or solitary towards the petiole; petiole c. 1.2 m long; rachis 2–2.5 m long, armed abaxially with solitary or paired spines to 1.5 cm long; leaflets 15–17 per side, clustered in sub-opposite groups of 2–3 and pointing in different directions, sigmoid, c. 50 x 5 cm, long acuminate, apical pair of leaflets coherent, not split. Male inflorescence lateral, emerging though groove on the abaxial side of the leaf base, to 4 m long, whip-like, with c. 3 partial inflorescences, these reddish, spike-like and up to 20 cm long, with hairs projecting from the subtending bracts; female inflorescences not seen. Fruits ellipsoid to obovoid, densely covered in spine-like scales. (Palms of Thailand) Clustering understory palm, spreading by whip-like stoloniferous inflorescences to 4 m long rooting and sprouting at tip, forming loose colonies of plants spaced 2-4 m apart. Stem to 70 cm tall, 5-8 cm in diam., short-creeping to erect, internodes 3-5 cm, conspicuous aerial roots. Leaves 6-9, pinnate, ascending, to 3.5 m long; sheath 30-60 cm long, long-open, tubular and bulbous only at base, light green, densely covered with rusty-brown felt-like indument, slender black spines to 4 cm long in horizontal lines of 3-7 in proximal portion becoming paired or solitary on petiole; petiole to 1.2 m long, with similar indument as sheath; rachis 2-2.5 m long, with similar indument as sheath, solitary or paired spines to 1.5 cm long and spaced 4-6 cm apart on abaxial surface; 17 pinnae per each side of rachis, clustered and fanned in remote sub-opposite groups of 2-3, pinnae to 50 x 5 cm, end pair confluent and broader, lanceolate, falcate, long-acuminate, green adaxially, paler abaxially, especially distal margins with forward-pointing bristles to 2 mm long, prominently J-nerved, a midrib and 1 sub- marginal primary nerve near each of 2 margins, 3 secondaries between midrib and each sub-marginal primary, 1-2 secondaries between each sub- marginal primary and margin. Staminate plants only seen, inflorescence interfoliar, to 4 m long, whiplike; peduncle 15 cm long; bracts 2-3, to 3 cm long; inflorescences bearing in proximal 45 cm 3 partial inflorescences to 20 cm long and spaced about 15 cm apart, each a nodding simple rachilla with a sub-peduncle to 14 cm long and sheathed by 4 bracts, lowest one to 8 cm long, long-acuminate, loosely sheathing, attached 4 cm up from base of sub-peduncle, 2nd bract to 5 cm long, 3rd to 3 cm long and funnel-shaped with acute tip, 4th to 4 mm long and compressed funnel-shaped, basal unsheathed portion of sub-peduncle with thick clusters of reddish brown hairs and scales to 2 mm wide; rachis or rachilla to 6 cm long, with numerous inflorescence bracteoles, these close-set, less than 1 mm apart, imbricate, spirally arranged, collar-like, reddish, each encircling rachis and forming a bowl 2 x 7 mm. Staminate flowers set within rachilla bracts, in dyads subtendedby broad-based slender bracteoles to 0.75 mm high, with clusters of slender transparent hairs 1-2 mm long projecting from margins of bracteole; flowers 5 x 2 mm, long-ovoid; calyx 3 mm high, moderately lobed, sepals connate in basal 3/4, rounded apically, medially thickened and nerved when dry, margins thin and membranous to nearly transparent and composing the connate portion of the sepals; petals 5 mm long, connate in basal 3 mm, valvate and rounded-acuteapically, spatulate, strongly nerved when dry; stamens 6, exceeding corolla throat. (e-taxonomy.eu) Editing by edric.