Calamus viridispinus
| Calamus (KAL-ah-muhs) viridispinus (vih-ree-dih-SPIHN-uhs) | |||||||
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Contents
Habitat and Distribution
Malaya, Sumatera, and Thailand. Perak, Selangor, Pahang, Trengganu, Kelantan. Endemic.
Description
Slender clustering montane rattan varying from "stemless" to 10 m tall. Stem without sheaths varying from 3 mm to 7 mm in diameter, with internodes to 15 cm, usually much shorter; stem with sheaths from 6-15 mm in diameter. Sheaths generally dull green armed with horizontal or slightly erect triangular black, yellowish-based spines to 3 cm long, though often much less, and abundant grey-brown indumentum between spines. Knee present in climbing forms. Ocrea inconspicuous. Flagellum absent. Leaf ecirrate in "stemless" forms, cirrate in climbing forms with petiole very short to about 25 cm in climbing forms to about 100 cm, in "stemless" forms sparsely armed with spines like those on the leaf sheath; leaflets very variable in size and shape, but always arranged in groups of 2-5 on either side of the rachis, generally dark green with paler bases, from 8-40 cm long by 5 mm - 2.5 cm wide, variously bristly. Inflorescences male and female superficially similar from 15-100 cm long with partial inflorescences varying greatly in size and length. Mature fruit generally oblong to ovate to about 8 mm long by 6 mm wide covered in dull brown, grey edged or yellowish scales in up to 15 vertical rows. Seed oblong, sometimes somewhat flattened. Endosperm homogeneous. Seedling leaf with A-6 leaflets. (J. Dransfield, A Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Records 29.. 1979)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.
Found widely in montane forest, especially on ridgetops 1000-2200 m altitude. The forms growing in valleys are always much larger than those growing on extreme ridgetops. (J. Dransfield, A Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Records 29.. 1979)/Palmweb.
Culture
Comments and Curiosities
Etymology: From the Latin; viridis - green, spinis - spine.
Uses: A good cane for tying purposes.
There are two sub-species:
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1.) Calamus viridispinus var. sumatranus; Sumatera. 2.) Calamus viridispinus var. viridispinus, Malaya, and Thailand. The mountain rattan complex: This is a highly problematic taxon which has been split up by Ridley, Beccari and Furtado into several species. Were Furtado's treatment to be followed here, even more species would have to be described, as almost every plant in the complex is slightly different. There is a whole range of leaf, inflorescence and habit variation; however, separate populations tend to be rather uniform. As these are moufitain plants, and hence their distribution disjunct, and botanical explorations even more disjunct, it is not surprising that there are disjunctions in the range of variation. However, I believe that to retain them as separate taxa is counterproductive because of the difficulty of assigning names to new collections. I have therefore included all the names within C. viridispinus, have provided a general description, and have indicated briefly how Furtado's taxa may be distinguished. Furtado (1956) stated that it was possible that his taxa might be no more than adaphic forms of the same species, and with this I now agree. The describing of so many new species by Furtado served the purpose of emphasizing problems of variation and recognition and drawing attention to the taxon. In many ways the complex of C. viridispinus presents problems similar to those of C. javerts is. (J. Dransfield, A Manual of the rattans of the Malay Peninsula. Malayan Forest Records 29.. 1979)/Palmweb. |
- IMAGE GALLERY
Ulu Kali, Malaysia. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Photo-Malaysian Biological Diversity
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.
