Raphia taedigera Mart.

Soboliferous, making a mass of great ascending and arching leaves and trunks arising from the mass 8-9 m. or more and as much as 30 cm. thick, sending up slender breathing-roots or shoots a few cm. above the mold or the water: leaves uniformly pinnate, 12-14 m. long; petiole 15-20 cm. thick near its base, convex on under surface and concave on upper face, woody; pinnae numerous and close together, subopposite, 1-1.5 m. or more long, 4-5 cm. broad, midrib prominent and elevated with strong secondary veins either side, apex long-pointed but not very narrow, margins bearing thin forward-pointing spicules: flowers in clusters protruding in distichous hands or clusters from the tight spathes or sheaths, at fruiting time the spent staminiferous fingers conspicuous among and beyond the fruits and spathes: fruit short-oblong with nearly square or truncate ends and short beak, 5-7 cm. long and 3-4 cm. thick, completely covered by smooth brown imbricate lorics-or scales with scarious margins and indistinct median line; inside the loricate shell another integument incloses an oblong hard wrinkled nutlet or seed about 3 cm. long, the albumen coarsely ruminate.

A tropical plant. It grows in swamp forests. It occurs in lowland rainforest. In Townsville palmetum.

Can be grown by seedlings.