59. Geonoma spinescens Wendland ex Burret (1930a: 230). Type: VENEZUELA. “Nueva Grenada”, no date, L. Schlim s.n. (holotype B, destroyed). Lectotype (designated by Stauffer 1997): Dahlgren (1959), plate 286. Geonoma tenuis Burret (1937a: 478). Type: VENEZUELA. Aragua: Rancho Grande, 1200 m, 8 January 1937, H. Pittier 13840 (holotype B, destroyed, isotypes F!, VEN n.v.). Plants 1.0 m tall; stems 0.5(0.3–0.75) m tall, in diameter no data, solitary; internodes length no data, yellowish and smooth. Leaves undivided, not plicate, bases of blades running diagonally into the rachis; sheaths 18.0 cm long; petioles 26.3(15.0–40.0) cm long, drying green or yellowish; rachis 37.3(33.5–40.5) cm long, 3.6(3.0–3.9) mm in diameter; veins not raised or slightly raised and triangular in cross-section adaxially; pinnae 1 per side of rachis; basal pinna length and width not applicable, forming an angle of 25(17–31)° with the rachis; apical pinna 22.4(18.5–25.8) cm long, width not applicable, forming an angle of 30(28–30)°. Inflorescences branched 1–2 orders; prophylls and peduncular bracts not ribbed with elongate, unbranched fibers, flattened, deciduous or persistent; prophylls no data; peduncular bracts length no data, well-developed, inserted 0.4 cm above the prophyll; peduncles 28.5(27.5–29.5) cm long, 2.9(2.5–3.4) mm in diameter; rachillae 17(9–31), 11.6(9.5–14.4) cm long, 1.2(1.0–1.5) mm in diameter, the surfaces without spiky, fibrous projections or ridges, drying brown, with faint to pronounced, short, transverse ridges, not filiform and not narrowed between the flower pits; flower pits spirally arranged, glabrous internally; proximal lips without a central notch before anthesis, not recurved after anthesis, not hood-shaped; proximal and distal lips drying the same color as the rachillae, joined to form a raised cupule, the margins not overlapping; distal lips welldeveloped; staminate and pistillate petals not emergent, not valvate throughout; staminate flowers deciduous after anthesis; stamens 6; thecae diverging at anthesis, inserted almost directly onto the filament apices, the connectives bifid but scarcely developed; anthers short and curled over at anthesis; non-fertilized pistillate flowers deciduous after anthesis; staminodial tubes crenulate or shallowly lobed at the apex, those of nonfertilized pistillate flowers not projecting and persistent after anthesis; fruits 7.1 mm long, 5.5 mm in diameter, the bases without a prominent stipe, the apices not conical, the surfaces not splitting at maturity, without fibers emerging, bumpy from the numerous, subepidermal, tangential, short fibers present, these coming to a point at fruit apices; locular epidermis without operculum, smooth, without pores. Distribution and habitat:— From 10°20’– 10°24’N and 67°41’– 67°57’W in the Coastal Cordillera in Venezuela (Aragua, Carabobo) at 1075(800–1330) m elevation in lowland or montane rainforest (Fig. 38). Taxonomic notes:— Geonoma spinescens is a member of a relatively large group of similar species, the G. lanata clade. It differs from all of these, except G. gentryi, in its spirally arranged flower pits. See notes under G. gentryi for further discussion. Subspecific variation:— No trait varies within this species. According to Stauffer (1997) the leaves are rarely irregularly pinnate with multi-veined pinnae. This species is scored as having the flower pits spirally arranged, but some specimens, especially those from Carabobo, have almost distichously arranged flower pits.

Published as part of Henderson, Andrew, 2011, A revision of Geonoma (Arecaceae), pp. 1-271 in Phytotaxa 17 on pages 140-141, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.17.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3538362