Family:
Arecaceae Bercht. & J.Presl
Genus:
Calamus L.

Calamus latifolius Roxb.

This species is accepted, and its native range is E. Nepal to Indo-China and Peninsula Malaysia.

[PW]
General Description
A moderately robust climber; stem cluster forming; with leafsheath 3 cm in diameter. Leaves curate, 2 - 3 m long; leafsheath with prominent knee, armed with subulate, sub-regularly verticillate, dark brown, 3 cm long spines; ocrea liguliform; rachis terete in cross section, without claws on the ventral side, armed only with small spicules; leaflets not many, papery, inequidis-tant on rachis, broadly lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, slightly concavo-convex, to 50 cm long, 10 cm wide at broadest part, 5-7 nerved; nerves smooth on both sides. Male inflorescence simply decompound; partial inflorescences twice branched; rachillae 3 - 4 cm long with 8-12 male flowers on each side of the rachilla; the sterile basal part of rachilla enclosed within the respective basal bracts. Male flowers 5 mm long, ovoid in bud; calyx externally striated, divided up to the middle to form 3-acute lobes. Female inflorescence simply decompound, rigid, erect not very diffuse, 60- 100cm long, shorter than leaves; partial inflorescences 4 in number, 15 - 20 cm long, with 4 - 6 rachillae on each side, caudiform at their apices; rachillae inserted just at the mouth of the respective basal bracts; each 5 - 6 cm long, sinuous with 8-10 flowers on each side; involucrophorum enclosed in its bract, cupular; involucre concealed in the involucrophorum, visible only by the two projecting teeth on the side of neuter flower; female flowers 5 mm long; calyx finely striated, deeply divided into broad, semiovate, acute lobes; corolla lobes narrower than calyx lobes. Fruiting perianth not distinctly pedicelliform. Fruit globose, 1-seeded, dull brown to blackish, to 1.5 cm in diameter, fruit scales flattened, not distinctly channelled at middle; seed globosen blackish, roughly pitted.
Distribution
INDIA (West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland), BANGLADESH.
Biology
A component of the moist lower hill forests upto 1000 m mostly near the fresh water swamps.
Vernacular
Korak bet, Horna bet.

[PW]
Vernacular
wai hangnou, wai namleuang, wai khairt, wai kiyow, wai hom, wai namhang, wai tiukeng, wai savang, wai sard, wai kanebouang (Lao Loum), re tair (Alak), wai kring, wai saikai, wai tiukeng, wai plawk (Thailand).
Biology
Evergreen forest at 100 - 650 m (Laos), and up to 1300 m (Thailand).
Conservation
Of no concern.
Distribution
Thailand (North, North-east, East, Central, South-east), Laos (all parts), Vietnam (Cochinchina) and Cambodia. Possibly also South and South-east Yunnan (Pei et al. 1989, 1991, but see below). Other varieties occur in India and the Thai-Malay Peninsula (Beccari 1908).

[PW]
Use
Cane is moderately strong and used for making rough baskets, walking sticks, and furniture frames; split canes for weaving chair bottoms.

[PW]
Use
The cane is of high quality and widely traded. The shoot is edible. There are reportedly plantations for cane production in Vietnam (Nguyen Truong Thanh & Ngo Thi Min Duyen 1997).

Native to:

Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Himalaya, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam

Calamus latifolius Roxb. appears in other Kew resources:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status
Feb 1, 1999 Oulathong [212], Laos Calamus palustris K000114552
Khamphone [403], Laos Calamus palustris K000114559
Khamphone [350], Laos Calamus palustris K000114571
Henderson, A. [3168], Myanmar Calamus palustris K000208550
Henderson, A. [3128], Myanmar Calamus palustris K000208558
Henderson, A. [3446], Vietnam Calamus palustris K000526506
Baker, W.J. [1005] Calamus palustris K000114525
Khamphone [353], Laos Calamus palustris K000114570
Khamphone [318], Laos Calamus palustris K000114576
Henderson, A. [3249], Vietnam Calamus palustris K000526535
Kerr, A.F.G. [1618B], Thailand Calamus kerrianus K000208119 holotype
Kerr, A.F.G. [1618B], Thailand Calamus kerrianus K000208120 holotype

First published in Hort. Bengal.: 73 (1814)

Accepted by

  • Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1-1532. MIM, Deurne.
  • Wu, Z. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2010). Flora of China 23: 1-515. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Literature

Palmweb - Palms of the World Online

  • S.K. Basu, Rattans (canes) in India. A Monographic Revision. 1992

Kew Backbone Distributions

  • Peters, C.M. & Henderson, A. (2014). Systematics, ecology and management of Rattans in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam: 1-222. Agricultural Printing House.

  • Art and Illustrations in Digifolia

    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    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 Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. 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