Arecaceae
Calamus

Calamus penicillatus Roxb.

First published in Fl. Ind., ed. 1832. 3: 781 (1832)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Peninsula Malaysia (Pulau Pinang). It is a liana and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.

Descriptions

Vernacular
rotan batu
General Description
Extremely slender clustering rattan climbing to 40 m tall. All pans drying pale. Stem without sheaths 2 - 4 mm in diameter, with sheaths to 7 mm, with internodes about 10 cm in length; sheaths dull green armed with upward pointing yellowish bulbous-based, black tipped spines 1 - 2 mm long, and scattered brownish scales. Knee conspicuous; Ocrea inconspicuous. Flagellum to 30 cm only. Leaf 40 cm long, ecirrate, without a petiole, bearing 3 - 4 leaflets on each side of the rachis; leaflets inequidistant, the terminal two slightly joined, bright green, thick textured, with rather conspicuous cross veins, the largest 15 cm long by 3 cm wide, usually less. Inflorescence male and female superficially similar very slender, rarely more than 60 cm long, with 4-5 partial inflorescences, to 15 cm long. Rachillae about 4 cm long. Fruit unknown; seedling leaf unknown.
Distribution
Penang: Penang Hill. Endemic.
[PW]

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]

Uses

Use
This appears to be a first class cane but of very small diameter. This species however is extremely rare.
[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