Plectocomia pierreana Becc.

Stems clustered, to 35 m, 1-9 cm in diam. Leaf sheaths green with dark brown tomentum initially, with yellowish brown, needlelike spines to 2 cm, solitary or usually borne in short rows; petioles absent or 2-10 cm; rachis to 3 m; pinnae 25-40 per side of rachis, broadly lanceolate, with prominent mid-and submarginal veins, not spiny along margins, rarely with few small spines, irregularly arranged in clusters of 2 or 3 pinnae, spreading in different planes, gray abaxially; middle pinnae 20-55 cm, 1.5-5 cm wide at mid-point; cirri 0.5-1.5 m. Inflorescences to 15 per stem, branched to 2 orders, each inflorescence with to 6 pendulous primary branches, these 75-100 cm; rachillae subtended by prominent, ± rectangular bracts 2.5-5 × 2-2.5 cm, glabrous or with few whitish gray, appressed hairs adaxially; male flowers with 6 stamens; female flowers with stigmas to 6 mm. Fruits globose to ellipsoid, beaked, 2-2.3 cm in diam.; fruit scales fringed only, lacerate apices mostly breaking off except where protected by persistent perianth.

It is a tropical plant. In Indochina it grows in evergreen forests between 300-1,000 m altitude. In Yunnan.

The shoots are eaten. Caution: It is claimed it can reduce a man's sexual potency!

Can be grown by seedlings.