Information

Stems erect, stout, 2–4 m. high. Leaf-sheaths with abruptly rounded or auriculate scarious-margined shoulders, sometimes purple-spotted within; blade linear, up to 2 m. long, 10–15(–20) mm. wide, with an obtuse tip and narrow base, flat above and convex on the back in dried material, glabrous, glaucous. Inflorescences contiguous in tropical African material, rarely separated, each subtended by a caducous foliaceous bract, rarely the ♀ spike constricted or interrupted and each part with a bract and separated by up to 2 cm. Male spike 8–11 (–15) cm. long, 1–1.2 cm. wide; bracteoles flattened and forked or laciniate above, rarely linear, red-brown, ± as long as the stamens; stamens with white filaments fused at the base; anthers 2–3 mm. long, with the connective produced into an obtuse, subtriangular dark tip as broad as or narrower than the anther, pale when immature; mature pollen grains free, deep primrose-yellow. Female spike (12–)14–32 cm. long, l.4–l.8(–2.3) cm. wide, bright chestnut- or reddish-brown at maturity, spotted with off-white if carpodia are abundant; “pedicels” numerous, filiform; bracteoles occasionally present, never numerous; carpodia pale, speckled with red, ± as long as the perigonous hairs; fertile gynoecia with a narrowly lanceolate stigma much exceeding the perigonous hairs.