Raphia textilis Welw.

Raphia textilis Welw. (Welwitsch 1859: 584) Figs 18, 19 Description. Palms 6 to 10 m high, 16 cm in diameter, solitary. Stipes not clustered, with flattened, curling and hanging fibres, forming belt-like structures up to 4.5 cm wide and breaking down to form smooth fibres 5–6 mm wide. Leaves 3.78–12 m long. Petiole laterally fluted from base to rachis, not spiny, 1.55–4 m long; DP 30 ranges between 5.0– 5.1 cm. Rachis 2.23–8 m long, laterally fluted, with a row of spines on each side of the cleft. Base of rachis uneven, with an offset of 11 cm between the two groups of basal leaflets. Basal leaflets, on either side of the rachis cleft, grouped into a tuft of 4–8 leaflets, 86–96 × 3.4–5 cm, 32–33 in the R 0-30 area of the rachis, with dorsal spines (on the main vein) 5 mm long and marginal spines 4 mm long. Inflorescences: 3–4 per individual, hanging, about 2.5 m long. Partial inflorescence 23 × 13 cm. Secondary inflorescences 13–17 × 2 cm long. Male flowers: corolla lobes 7–9 × 2 mm. Infructescence hanging, 3.80 m long. Fruits subglobose to obovoid, 5.3–6.5 × 4.8–5.2 cm, dark green when immature, becoming brownish and reddish when mature, truncated at the top with a 4 mm long beak. Ecology. Growing on tierra firme. The species is cultivated in Lékana village (Plateaux) for commercial purposes. It flowers and fruits in August. Distribution. Angola (including Cabinda), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon (Mogue Kamga et al. 2019; Tuley 1995), Republic of the Congo (this study); in the Republic of the Congo, the species occurs in Plateaux. IUCN conservation assessment. Raphia textilis has been assessed as Least Concern (LC) by Cosiaux et al. (2018 g), who recommend further collecting efforts to better understand the area of occupancy of the species. Uses. The epidermis of the young leaflets of Raphia textilis is used to make raffia loincloths in Lékana (Plateaux). Vernacular names. Piki, plural Apiki, in Téké (Plateaux). Specimens examined. Republic of the Congo. • Plateaux. Lékana, 02°52.51'S, 013°50.06'E, 786 m, 13 Aug 2019, Ndolo Ebika & Atikani 2702 (HICPC).