Dypsis medagascariensis – Plant

Description

Dypsis madagascariensis is a very handsome, medium sized, clumping (usually just 2-4 trunks) or solitary palm (which was known as Dypsis lucubensis). It is remarkable for its great height and slender appearance.
Crown shaft: Green to white waxy.
Trunk: Thick, grey closely ringed (Bamboo-like), with rings on stem not conspicuous, to about 15-18 m tall (but often less in cultivation) and15-30 cm in diameter.
Crown: With tristichous (three ranked) leaf arrangement, sort of like a triangle palm (see: Dypsis decaryi). Leaves (fronds) 7 to 12.
Leaves: Pinnate, plumose; sheath up to 65 cm long, petiole up to 40 cm long, rachis 1,60–3 m long; leaflets, green, about 80-130 (or more) on each side of the rachis, in in whorls of 2 to 6 ,40-100 cm long with drooping tips.
Inflorescence Between the leaves, slender, branched to 3 orders, arching; 90-150 cm long and green, with both male and female flowers. Flowers very small, unisexual, in groups of 3; male flowers globose with 6 stamens and a rudimentary pistil; female flowers ovate.with superior, apparently 1-celled ovary and rudimentary stamens.
Flowering: From May to June.
Fruit: Oval to ellipsoid drupe 1-2 cm long 0,5-1 cm in diameter.
Seed: 1-1,2 cm long, endosperm uniform.