We consider the finite-dimensional Banach spaces ℓp(n), where p>l. On these spaces there is a unique homogeneous semi-inner-product [.,.] consistent with the norm. If p≠2 this semi-inner product is not symmetric. We define a pair of vectors x and y to be biorthogonal if [x, y] = [y, x] = 0. For a given non-zero x, let τ(X) be the number of elements in a maximal linearly independent set of vectors biorthogonal to x. If p = 2 it is well-known that this number is n–1. The aim of this paper is to find τ(X) when p≠2. Our investigation shows that the situation differs from the Euclidean case in that the value of τ(X) can be either n–l or n –2. The ‘exceptional’ vectors x for which τ(x) = n –2 are characterised.