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Classification
Oncosperma
Nomenclature
SUMMARY
Tall, clustering, monoecious palms. Individual stems slender, naked and ringed by the scars, armed with robust spines below the crown, these usually eroded towards the base on old stems. Leaf sheath tubular forming a well defined crownshaft, densely covered by hairs and spines of varying lengths; petiole robust, armed similarly to the sheath in hair covering and armature; blade pinnately divided into numerous, single-fold, regularly arranged, reduplicate, apically acuminate pinnae, lacking spines. Inflorescence protandrous, infrafoliar, erect in bud to pendulous at anthesis, branching to 2 orders; peduncle short; prophyll coriaceous, with dense hair covering, more or less spiny; single peduncular bract similar to prophyll but more sparsely armed; rachis longer than peduncle; first order branches numerous to few, pendulous; rachillae basally with protandrous triads of one central female flower and two lateral male flowers, distally with solitary or paired male flowers. Flowers sessile, cream white; male flower slightly longer than female flower, with 6–9(–12) free stamens, elongate anthers and strongly reduced pistillode; female flower with highly reduced staminodes. Fruit globose, dark blue to black; epicarp smooth; mesocarp thin, fleshy, without fibres; endocarp thin, crustaceous, with basal operculum. Seed with deeply ruminate endosperrm. Germination adjacent ligular.
Five species in Sri Lanka to the Philippines. Two species in Thailand.