Low or intermediate, 2.5-8 m. tall, in small clumps (sometimes only 2 or'3 or 4 boles); trunk 4-6 cm. thick, conspicuously ringed with black spines 1-4 cm. long: leaves 2 m. and more long, usually, continuously pinnate but-sometimes interrupted, pinnae on main part of rachis 2-5 cm. apart; petiole slender, 1 m. or more long, lower part carrying prominent spines some of which may be 10-15 cm. long, upper part unarmed; pinnae some-times 1 m. long and about 3 cm. broad, gray-green and conspicuously cross-veined between the promi-nent side-ribs, midrib upstanding, glabrous on both surfaces, glossy above, setulose on margins of upper part, apex oblique: cymba or spathe 15-30 cm. long, densely black-spiny; spadix dense, the fertile part short and 1-0-15 cm. long: fruit broad-turbinate or short-pyriform, truncate at apex, about 1 cm. thick and a little longer, often angled by pressure, dark green for a long time but eventually orange-red, the upper part covered with short bristly hairs but which are caducous or may soon weather away; cupule small, nearly or quite flat, equal in the two series, shallowly lobed.
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