Calamus perakensis
| Calamus (KAL-ah-muhs) perakensis (pehr-ah-KEHN-siss) | |||||||
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Contents
Habitat and Distribution
Peninsular Malaysia State of Pahang. Tropical Moist Forest.
Description
Culture
Cold Hardiness Zone: 10a
Comments and Curiosities
There are three sub-species:
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1.) Calamus perakensis var. perakensis; Malaya, Perak, Pahang, Selangor. West Sumatra. Common Name: rotan dudok Clustering and acaulescent to very shortly climbing rattan with stems decumbent, rarely rigidly erect, to 3 m long. Stem without sheaths about 2 m in diameter, with sheaths to 4 cm or more. Sheaths cinnamon brown, armed with long or short darker brown spines to 3 cm long and dense brown indumentum; spines around leaf sheath mouth much larger, papery, erect, to 12 cm long. Knee absent. Flagellum absent. Leaf ecirrate, arcuate to 2 m long including the petiole to 40 cm long; petiole armed with short reflexed, triangular spines, to 1 cm long, those near the base occasionally much longer; brown indumentum abundant between the spines. Leaflets rather close, regular, to about 40 on each side of the rachis the longest near the base, to 25 cm long by 2 cm wide, decreasing markedly to tip where terminal leaflets are about 10 cm long by 1 cm wide, usually nearly divergent. Inflorescences male and female superficially similar, usually erect, but sometimes arcuate, varying considerably in size and degree of branching, but always with conspicuous cinnamon brown bracts, with tattered limbs; partial inflorescences 2-6 in number. Rachillae about 3 cm long. More or less mature fruit rounded about 2 mm in diameter, shortly beaked covered in 18-20 vertical rows of red-brown scales. Seed rounded. Endosperm homogeneous. Seedling leaf bifid. (J. Dransfield, A Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Records 29.. 1979)/Palmweb. Editing by edric. Calamus perakensis var. perakensis is usually confined to steep ridgetops on ± pod-solized soils in lower montane forest at altitudes between 900 and 1500 m above sea-level, where it forms thickets in the undergrowth.Calamus perakensis is extraordinarily variable. Several taxa I have already separated out and described or given tentative names. This whole species complex requires intensive and extensive taxonomic study. I have distinguished three varieties within C. perakensis, var. perakensis, var. niger and var. crassus. It is possible that with further study the last two may have to be given specific status. (J. Dransfield, A Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Records 29.. 1979)/Palmweb. Etymology: Named after the State of Perak. Uses: Occasionally used for making walking sticks. 2.) Calamus perakensis var. crassus: Malaya, Trengganu: endemic. Solitary erect short-stemmed rattan with stems rarely exceeding 2 m tall. Stem without sheaths to 2.5 cm in diameter with very prominent nodes, and internodes to 3 cm only. Stem with sheaths to 4 cm in diameter. Sheaths dull green armed with scattered brown erect spines of length varying from 1-4.5 cm, slightly less armed at base of petiole; spines around leaf sheath mouth occasionally conspicuously longer, and erect, brownish; brown indumentum abundant between spines. Knee absent. Flagellum absent. Leaf ecirrate to 3 m tall, with petiole to 2 m armed with pale green spines. Leaflets regular, about 40 on each side of rachis the longest to 40 cm long by 2.5 cm wide conspicuously 3 nerved, armed with sparse bristles on margins and upper surface of nerves, conspicuously and rather densely armed with bristles along 3 nerves near the tip on the undersurface. Uppermost leaflets not strongly divergent. Inflorescences, male much more highly branched than female, to 1.5 m long, with peduncular portion densely spiny, to 60 cm long. Partial inflorescences to 3, rarely more. Bracts large, with tattered limb to 40 cm long by 8 cm wide, very sparsely armed; male rachillae to 1 cm long, female to 10 cm. ± mature fruit rounded c 6 mm in diameter very conspicuously beaked, covered in 17 vertical rows of pale brown scales. Seed rounded; endosperm homogeneous. (J. Dransfield, A Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Recirds 29.. 1979)/Palmweb. "Rotan tekok gunung" is known only from hillslopes from 100-500 m alt. in Diptero-carp forest in Trengganu. It is distinguished from other varieties of C. perakensis by the presence of the greatly expanded inflorescence bract limbs, the rather thick female rachillae and the sparse cinnamon brown indumentum. (J. Dransfield, A Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Records 29.. 1979)/Palmweb. Common Name: Rotan tekok gunung. Uses: Can be used for making walking sticks. 3.) Calamus perakensis var. niger: Malaya, Johore: endemic. Solitary shortly climbing moderate rattan with stems to 5 m tall. Stem without sheaths 1.3 cm in diameter, with sheaths about 3 cm in diameter. Internodes about 20 cm long. Sheaths pale green with scattered pale brown spines to 4 cm long arranged in lateral groups of up to 7 (almost whorled) or solitary, and densely covered in caducous chocolate coloured scales; spines around leaf sheath mouth of two types, one type as the sheath spines but much longer, horizontally aligned and the second type papery, erect, deep purplish brown, to 30 cm long. No knee. No flagellum Leaf ecirrate to 1.25 m long including petiole; petiole 40 cm armed with short lateral spines and densely covered with chocolate coloured scales. Leaflets about 35 on each side of the rachis, rather distant, ± divaricate, the lowermost longer than the rest, to 40 cm long by 2 cm wide, shortly brown bristly on 3 nerves on upper-side, minutely toothed along nerves below. Inflorescences male and female superficially similar, erect or arcuate, to 1.25 m long with 5 partial inflorescences peduncle to 30 cm ± unarmed. Bracts very large and conspicuous, tubular below, expanded and split to give a limb about 40 cm long by 5 cm wide, with few scattered triangular spines to 1 mm high and very dense chocolate-brown scales. Partial inflorescences very crowded, to 15 cm long with distichous rachillae; female to 7 cm long, the male to 1.5 cm. Flowers and fruit and seedling leaf unknown. (J. Dransfield, A Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Records 29.. 1979)/Palmweb. Differs from the type variety in being solitary and erect and bearing greatly expanded bract limbs, the sheaths, petioles, leaf rachis and bracts all covered in dense chocolate - black scales. This variety is quite common along swamp margins in east Johore. (J. Dransfield, A Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Recirds 29.. 1979)/Palmweb. |
- IMAGE GALLERY
Genting Highlands, Malaysia. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Malaysian Biological Diversity.
Malaysian Biological Diversity.
Malaysian Biological Diversity.
Malaysian Biological Diversity.
Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
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 Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Records 29.. 1979
Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.
