Arecaceae
Calamus

Calamus crinitus (Blume) Miq.

First published in Nieuwe Verh. Eerste Kl. Kon. Ned. Inst. Wetensch. Amsterdam, ser. 3, 3: 6 (1850)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Peninsula Thailand to W. Malesia. It is a liana and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.

Descriptions

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

Distribution
Recorded in Borneo only for East Kalimantan; elsewhere in Sumatra.
Conservation
Near theratened.
General Description
Habit - Climbing; stems clustering; not branching in the forest canopy; not dying after flowering. Plants dioecious. Leaf-sheath - Tubular for most of its length; stem and sheath together 0.8-1 cm; flagellum absent; knee absent, or present; with spines similar to the rest of the sheath. Sheath surface lacking small horizontal ridges; without hairs or minute spines; green; scales on surface lacking. Leaf sheath with abundant spines; spines persistent; downward pointing, or upward pointing; of more or less the same size; the larger spines needle-like; the longest, excluding those at the mouth of the sheath 5-8cm. Spines straight; in life black; with smooth margins; the bases not swollen or crescent-like. Spines mostly grouped; where grouped together arranged in whorls; the whorls interlocking. Spines around the leaf sheath mouth scarcely different from those on the rest of the sheath. Ocrea - Absent. Leaf-stalk - Present, usually greater than 3cm; armed; irregularly. Large well-defined auricles absent; blotches on petiole absent. Leaves - Cirrate; rachis armed; not hairy. Undersurface of newly emerged leaflets same as upper surface. Scales absent from leaflet surfaces. Leaflets sessile; 1 to 10 on each side of rachis, or 11 to 39 on each side of rachis; irregularly spaced and parallel; held in a single plane; linear-lanceolate; the leaflet tip acuminate. Longest leaflet 27-33 cm; not exceeding 2cm wide; with bristles on both faces; the margins with many bristles. Bristles not interlocking; short, dark or dark-tipped up to 5mm long. Leaflets conspicuously plicate; the veins not radiating; midrib raised and prominent adaxially. Lowermost leaflets not reflexed across the stem. Apical leaflets not or scarcely joined; not less than 4 cm long. Inflorescence - Inflorescence axis erect along the axis, without clawed spines on the primary bracts; not rooting at its tip; much shorter than the leaves; the first bract not enclosing the inflorescences at anthesis. Partial inflorescence present; bracts at the base of the partial inflorescences split to the base and falling off before the flowers open. Rachilla lacking an enclosing bract; not at all pressed against the subtending bract, or completely or partly pressed against the subtending branch. Flowers arranged in two rows. Male rachillae not less than 1 cm long. Female rachillae not congested; with conspicuously stalked flower cups. Bracts on the rachillae not net-like. Fruit - Globose; red resin (Dragon's blood) absent; one seeded. Calyx in fruit split part way and partly tubular. Fruit scales with a conspicuous central groove; the tips not recurved; when dry mid brown (excluding dark margins). Seed globose; the surface smooth.
[PW]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Palmweb - Palms of the World Online

    • Palmweb 2011. Palmweb: Palms of the World Online. Published on the internet http://www.palmweb.org. Accessed on 21/04/2013
    • Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0