Category:CALAMUS

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Calamus is the largest known genus in the whole palm family with more than 370 species (more than Dypsis and Chamadorea combined, plus Phoenix and Archontopoenix) but with few in cultivation.

All Calamus are pinnate, dioecious and heavily armed with spines. Some are solitary, most are clustering. Many grow as very, very long "rattans" with vine-like stems up to 200 feet (66 M) long, which climb through the tall trees of the primary forests of tropical Asia, Indonesia, and Australia.

Climbing Calamus are not true vines in that they do not have twining stems, leaf stems or tendrils like, say Ipomea (Morning glories). Instead, they climb by means of unique structures called cirri (modified leaf rachii) and flagella (modified inflorescences) both of which are viciously spiny and up to ten or more feet long. The cirri and flagella essentially "hook" themselves onto the tree that is being climbed (as well as on any people unfortunate enough to bump into them). Lower stems on Calamus are spineless, since the spines are all borne in the crowns of leaves, on the cirri, flagella or the leaf bases.

Calamus are more abundant in herbarium collections than in botanical gardens mostly because their eventual size, spininess or both make them major management challenges.

Etymology: From the Greek word for 'reed', referring to the rather thin pliable stems of this genus.

This is a dioecious genus.

"CALAMUS"

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