Calamus henryanus
Calamus (KAL-ah-muhs) henryanus (henry'-AHN-uhs) | |||||||
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Contents
Habitat and Distribution
China (North-west, South-east and South Yunnan, South-east China), Thailand (North and North-east), Laos (North and Central) and Vietnam (Tonkin and North Annam). Scrub and tropical moist forest at 600 - 1100 m (Laos), 450 - 1300 m (Thailand) and 1350 m (China).Description
An exceptionally beautiful, smallish rattan palm with very finely pinnate, glossy green leaves. It is native to rainforests in southern China and Indo-China where it grows at some altitude, suggesting that it would be fairly tolerant of cool conditions. (RPS.com)
Calamus henryanus is a clustering rattan. Stems climbing to 20 m long, without sheaths to 0.4–1 cm in diam., with sheaths to 2 cm in diam., internodes 5–18 cm long. Leaves ecirrate; sheaths green with reddish brown indumentum, and bearing abundant scattered or partially grouped narrow triangular spines with swollen bases, the longest to 2 cm, the spine margins hairy, smaller spines often interspersed with larger ones, occasionally a few spines around the leaf sheath mouth larger than the rest, to 5 cm long and erect; ocrea inconspicuous, unarmed; knee conspicuous, generally unarmed; flagellum to 1 m; leaf rachis to 75 cm long, bearing up to 35 leaflets on each side, regularly arranged but usually with a few gaps; the longest 15–40 x 1.3–2 cm, covered with small bristles along the 3–5 prominent ribs adaxially and abaxially, margins bristly. Inflorescence with a terminal flagellum, and with up to 5 rather distant partial inflorescences; male and female inflorescences superficially similar, to 1.5 m long, the male branched to 2–3 orders, the female to 1–2 orders, each partial inflorescences to 12 cm long, composed of strongly adpressed rachillae 0.5–2.5 cm long, giving the whole partial infloresccnce a spike-like appearance. Mature fruit broad ellipsoid, about 1 x 0.7 cm, with a short beak, and covered with about 17 vertical rows of straw-coloured scales with dark red margins. Seed rounded, about 0.7 cm in diam.; endosperm homogeneous. Editing by edric.
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Stems clustered, climbing, to 10 m, to 1.8 cm in diam. Leaf sheaths with mottled, reddish brown hairs, with scattered, yellowish, flattened, triangular spines to 2 cm (sometimes a few spines to 7 cm at sheath apices); ocreas very short, sometimes spiny; knees present; flagella to 4 m; rachis to 1.3 m with 30-45 linear pinnae per side, these regularly arranged, or often regularly arranged but with gaps; middle pinnae 15-40 cm, 1.3-2 cm wide at mid-point, adaxial veins and margins bristly; cirri absent. Inflorescences to 4.5 m, flagellate; inflorescence bracts tattering at apices. Fruits yellowish brown, globose to ellipsoid, 1-1.5 × 0.7-1 cm. The differences used by Beccari to diagnose C. henryanus and C. balansaeanus (each based upon a single, incomplete specimen) can no longer be used. The much more extensive material now available (including topotypical material of C. henryanus from Yunnan) shows that variation in leaflet length, exact degree of branching in the female inflorescence and various other quantitative characters is much too great for two distinct taxa to be recognised. The support of the neuter flower is slightly enlarged (about 1 mm tall) in the type specimen of C. henryanus relative to all the other female material examined but this alone cannot be considered a suitable character for defining a species. Contrary to the key given by Pei et al. (1991) the two taxa cannot be recognised on the basis that one has regularly pinnate leaflets and the other interrupted pinnate ones. The variety castaneolepis of C. henryanus was diagnosed on the basis of fruit size and the proportion of chestnut on the fruit scales. The latter is about 50% in the type of variety castaneolepis, not 100% as implied by the protologue. Both differences are attributable to the fruit being immature and thus are not felt significant enough to merit recognition of a separate variety. (J. Dransfield, A Synopsis of the Rattans (Arecaceae: Calamoideae) of Laos and Neighbouring Parts of Indochina. 2002)/Palmweb. |
Culture
Cold Hardiness Zone: 10a
Comments and Curiosities
Uses: Suitable for handicrafts but the short stems are not attractive to traders. Shoot edible, leaves (?) boiled for tea.
Conservation: Probably of little concern since it is quite common, is under low harvesting pressure and grows well in degraded forest.
External Links
References
Phonetic spelling of Latin names by edric.
Special thanks to Geoff Stein, (Palmbob) for his hundreds of photos.
Special thanks to Palmweb.org, Dr. John Dransfield, Dr. Bill Baker & team, for their volumes of information and photos.
Glossary of Palm Terms; Based on the glossary in Dransfield, J., N.W. Uhl, C.B. Asmussen-Lange, W.J. Baker, M.M. Harley & C.E. Lewis. 2008. Genera Palmarum - Evolution and Classification of the Palms. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. All images copyright of the artists and photographers (see images for credits).
J. Dransfield, A Synopsis of the Rattans (Arecaceae: Calamoideae) of Laos and Neighbouring Parts of Indochina. 2002
Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.