Calamus flagellum
| Calamus (KAL-ah-muhs) flagellum (flah-JEHL-luhm) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Calamus flagellum var. flagellum, collected along the Ledo Road in Kachin State, Myanmar (see Hukaung Valley Rattan Survey). The species, which is rarely used, is known locally as mauk chee kyein, or monkey poop rattan. The dried fruits, apparently, look like monkey scat. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb. | |||||||
| Scientific Classification | |||||||
| |||||||
| Synonyms | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| Native Continent | |||||||
 | |||||||
| Morphology | |||||||
| |||||||
| Culture | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| Survivability index | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| Common names | |||||||
|
| |||||||
Contents
Habitat and Distribution
INDIA (Sikkim, Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya), BANGLA DESH, BHUTAN. A component of mixed forests on
Description
A strong climber; stem cluster forming, with leafsheath to 4.5 cm in diameter. Leaves ecirrate; leafsheath with 6 - 7 m long heavily armed flagellum; ocrea marcescent; petiole terete, about 1 cm in diameter, armed with whorls of 1 - 3 cm long subulate spines; leaflets equidistant, many, green on both sides, broadly ensiform, prominently 1-nerved on upper side; middle leaflets longer, to 60 cm long; uppermost leaflets connate up to the middle; midnerve and marginal nerves bristly; rachis heavily armed on lower side with strong claws at intervals. Male and female inflorescences flagelliform, to 5 m or more long, simply-decompound; axial part of the inflorescence armed with claws; partial inflorescences about 1 m long with 3-4 rachillae on each side; primary bract tubular, closely sheathing, lacerate and fibrous at upper part; secondary bracts unarmed, tubular, narrowly funnel shaped, obliquely truncate with triangular appendage on one side; rachillae 10-25 cm long slightly compressed; each bearing 10-30 distichous to remote flowers; involucre cupular; male flowers 8 - 10 mm x 3 mm, curved outside; female rachillae remote, 20-25 cm long; involucrophorum unilaterally cupular, truncate, projected from the basal bract; involucre cupular, truncate, entirely sunken in involucrophorum; female flowers 7 mm long; calyx ovate, 3-dentate; petals lanceolate. Fruit about 3 cm long, broadly ovoid; fruit scales deeply channelled at middle; seed terete in cross section; embryo basal. (J. Dransfield and W.J. Baker. 2002)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.
Culture
A small number of cane bushes have been raised in North Bengal, under D.F.O. North Silviculture Division, West Bengal. Cold Hardiness Zone: 10a
Comments and Curiosities
Calamus flagellum is a vigorous, clustering rattan native to montane rainforests from northeastern India and Bhutan through Burma to northern Thailand, where it grows to an altitude of 1200 m (4000 ft.) It adapts well to tropical and some warm temperate areas and can sustain some cool and light frosts. Calamus flagellum forms slender canes that are used in the manufacture of handicrafts and furniture. It also produces edible palm hearts. (RPS.com)
Infrequent in its natural habitats.
| read more |
|---|
|
There are two sub-species: 1.) Calamus flagellum var. flagellum; India (North-east), Myanmar, China (South and South-east Yunnan), Thailand (North), Laos (North) and Vietnam (northern part). Also Bangladesh. Evergreen forest at 800 - 950 m in Laos, 1400 - 1500 m in Thailand. Beccari (1908) tentatively described the variety karinensis on the basis of a single specimen, stating that with further material it may prove to be either synonymous with the typical form or a full species. Pei et al. (1989) raised karinensis to species rank on the basis of five specimens from Yunnan, although unfortunately they had not had access to the types (Chen Sanyang, pers. comm. 1999). Although C. karinensis was considered a 'sp. nov.' by the authors it is probably better treated as a 'stat. nov.' since they clearly intended to refer to the same taxon as Beccari (1908). The correct type is thus that of the basionym. Table 1 outlines the published diagnostic features of the three taxa. Criterion 1 is clearly not diagnostic even as stated - both forms can show seriate spines. Criteria 3, 4, 5 and 6 are vague and appear impossible to apply in a consistent, objective way. Criteria 3 - 7 apply only to females and 5 - 7 require mature fruit. In the present study extensive material, old and recent, was examined to determine whether the criteria were applicable, whether they could be better phrased or quantified, and whether other criteria might be found. As Beccari suspected, the presence of flattened spines along the rachis of the Fea specimen (Criterion 2) merely indicates a juvenile leaf (cf. e.g Oulathong 200). All the Chinese material bears thick, deflexed spines or claws and in this respect there is no difference between material assigned to the differing forms. It appears that Pei et al. (1989) wished rather to place their emphasis on the fact of these claws being in pairs or threes and not solitary as in the typical form, but this seems to us to be a variable feature of no diagnostic value in the present example. The degree of primary bract laceration and scale channeling were scored by eye and measurements were made of rachilla length and spacing (the latter as an index of whether there were 'more' or 'fewer', since total numbers could not be determined from the fragmentary specimens). These data showed clearly that variation in Criteria 3 - 6 was not correlated between characters and no disjunctions could be found supporting the recognition of two taxa. All fruiting material had a dark intramarginal line of varying width and shade and a fine creamy marginal line (Criterion 7). This included those specimens cited by Pei et al. (1989) as representing C. karinensis and so supposedly 'without a dark (intramarginal) line'. In Fea s.n. the intramarginal line is broad at the scale corners but narrows or even disappears near the midline of the scale. Thus overall the re-assessment found no support for the separation of taxa, and this causes us to synonymise them here. Common Name: wai lao, wai mon, wai namleuang, wai thoon (Lao Loum), blong poul (Khamu). Uses: Cane suitable for handicrafts and reported to be traded in Laos (although Beccari (1908) and Sarkar (1999) note that the cane is very brittle). Shoot edible. (J. Dransfield and W.J. Baker. 2002)/Palmweb. 2.) Calamus flagellum var. furvifurfuraceus; China (South Yunnan) and Vietnam (Central Annam). The variety is only reported from Indochina. At 1350 m in Vietnam. In the protologue this variety was diagnosed on the basis of the slightly grouped uppermost and lowermost leaflets, the petiole, rachis and sheath with dense brown indumentum and the smaller fruit. One specimen from the protologue, Xu, Y & Zhang, YE Z. 14327, does not fit the diagnosis and we place it in the nominate variety, whilst Chen, S. Y. & Yu, C. 6471 (also cited by Pei et al. 1989) was not seen. Grouped lower leaflets and extensive, dense, dark indumentum are not shown by specimens placed in the nominate variety, but the relevant part of the rachis is seldom preserved in any case. The type specimen of this variety has no fruit and the fruits of two others in the original description are not especially small, so we suggest that this character be disregarded. Although maintained here it seems likely that fuller field observations will show that the two varieties given here are synonymous, their apparent distinctness resulting from individual variation combined with collection of fragmentary material. For example, leaflet grouping is often seen in Calamus species on leaves from near the base of the stem even when the leaflets on upper leaves are regularly arranged (personal observations); it is particularly tempting to collect such unrepresentative leaves on a plant as huge as C. flagellum. Furthermore, indumentum tends to be thickest on young stems and freshly emerged organs, thinning out later. (J. Dransfield and W.J. Baker. 2002)/Palmweb. |
- IMAGE GALLERY
Photo-Rare Palm Seeds.com
Calamus flagellum var. flagellum, collected along the Ledo Road in Kachin State, Myanmar (see Hukaung Valley Rattan Survey). The species, which is rarely used, is known locally as mauk chee kyein, or monkey poop rattan. The dried fruits, apparently, look like monkey scat. 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 and W.J. Baker. 2002
Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.
