高地钩叶藤 gao di gou ye teng

Plectocomia montana Griffith ex T. Anderson.

Stems clustered, to 20 m, 5-10 cm in diam. Leaf sheaths green, densely covered initially with whitish brown tomentum, with brown, needlelike spines to 2.5 cm borne in rows almost circling sheath; petioles 6-15 cm; rachis to 1.5 m; pinnae to 30 per side of rachis, lanceolate, with an elongate, filiform apex, without prominent mid- and submarginal veins, minutely spiny along margins, irregularly arranged in clusters of 2 or 3 pinnae, spreading in different planes, green abaxially; middle pinnae 25-50 cm, 2-4 cm wide at mid-point; cirri to 1 m. Inflorescences several per stem, branched to 2 orders, with several pendulous primary branches, these 40-80 cm; rachillae subtended by prominent, ± rectangular bracts to 5.5 × 2 cm, densely tomentose adaxially with brown, feltlike scales; male flowers with 6 stamens; female flowers with stigmas to 1 mm. Fruits globose, 1-1.5 cm in diam.; fruit scales fringed, without bristly, erect apices.

Montane rain forests; 1500-2500 m. Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Laos, Nepal, Thailand].