Harmsiopanax ingens

Description

Harmiopanax ingens (Araliaceae) is a spiny, palmlike mesocaul tree endemic to the montane rainforests of central New Guinea which bears a terminal rosette of meter-wide peltate leaves on equally long petioles. It ultimately attains a height of eighteen meters, at which point it bears a huge panicle of flowers five meters high and equally wide; the largest above ground inflorescence of any dicot plant (although Caloncoba flagelliflora (Flacourtiaceae; of West Africa) and Ficus geocarpa (Moraceae; of the Malay Peninsula) and F. unciata var. strigosa (also of Malaya) have larger subsurface panicles, each about nine meters in length. H. ingens is monocarpic, and again the largest among dicots. Its native name is "Makua".