24. Geonoma frontinensis Burret (1930a: 170) . Type: COLOMBIA. Antioquia: Frontino, 1400–1700 m,

September 1871, F. Lehmann 7323 (holotype B, destroyed, isotype K!).

Geonoma mucronata Burret (1930a: 171) . Type: COLOMBIA. Antioquia: Dos Quebradas, 1500 m, 7 January 1880, W. Kalbreyer 1334 (holotype B, destroyed). Neotype (designated by Bernal et al. 1989): COLOMBIA. Antioquia: Carretera San Carlos-Granada, Dos Quebradas, 4.5 km E of San Carlos, 1200 m, 20 September 1987, R. Bernal & L. Tobón 1383 (neotype COL!, isoneotypes MO!, NY!).

Plants 1.1(0.5–2.0) m tall; stems 0.2(0.2–0.3) m tall, solitary or clustered; internodes no data. Leaves 6(4–8) per stem, undivided or irregularly pinnate, not plicate, bases of blades running diagonally into the rachis; sheaths 30.0 cm long; petioles 68.8(26.0–110.0) cm long, drying green or yellowish; rachis 40.0(22.5–65.0) cm long, 3.3(2.0–4.5) mm in diameter; veins raised and rectangular in cross-section adaxially; pinnae 5(1–8) per side of rachis; basal pinna 35.5(19.0–47.5) cm long, 3.6(0.3–8.7) cm wide, forming an angle of 46(30– 61)° with the rachis; apical pinna 24.8(19.0–30.0) cm long, 9.8(2.0–21.5) cm wide, forming an angle of 26(20–34)° with the rachis. Inflorescences unbranched or branched 1 order; prophylls and peduncular bracts not ribbed with elongate, unbranched fibers, persistent; prophylls 19.8(13.4–26.2) cm long, not short and asymmetrically apiculate, the surfaces not ridged, without unequally wide ridges; peduncular bracts 20.2(14.3–26.5) cm long, well-developed, inserted 9.7(4.0–17.0) cm above the prophyll; peduncles 37.4(21.0–58.0) cm long, 2.9(1.6–4.5) mm in diameter; rachillae 2(1–4), 14.7(7.5–20.5) cm long, 3.9(2.9–5.2) mm in diameter, the surfaces without spiky, fibrous projections or ridges, drying brown or yellow-brown, without short, transverse ridges, not filiform and not narrowed between the flower pits; flower pits spirally arranged, densely hairy internally proximally and distally; proximal lips without a central notch before anthesis, not recurved after anthesis, hood-shaped at anthesis, sometimes splitting post-anthesis; proximal lips drying the same color as the rachillae; distal lips absent; 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 persistent after anthesis; staminodial tubes crenulate or shallowly lobed at the apex, those of non-fertilized pistillate flowers not projecting and persistent after anthesis; fruits 6.7(6.0–8.4) mm long, 5.1(4.8–5.3) 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, sculpted, usually also with a raised, meridional ridge, without pores.

Distribution and habitat:— From 1°12’– 7°14’N and 73°58’– 77°00’W on eastern slopes of the Western, Central, and Eastern Cordilleras in Colombia at 1560(1000–2030) m elevation in montane rainforest (Fig. 19).

Taxonomic notes:— See notes under Geonoma euspatha .

Subspecific variation:— Three traits vary within this species (stem branching, leaf division, inflorescence branching). There is geographic discontinuity, but too few specimens to test for differences between areas.