Arecaceae
Calamus

Calamus scabridulus Becc.

First published in Rec. Bot. Surv. India 2: 203 (1902)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is W. Malesia. It is a liana and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.

Descriptions

General Description
Clustering rattan climbing to 20 m tall. Stem without sheaths to 1.2 cm in diameter, with sheaths to 3 cms, with internodes to 15 cm. Sheaths pale green armed with rather uniform ± horizontal triangular green spines to 1.2 cm long and 5 mm wide, scattered dark indumentum and slight rough horizontal ridges between the spines. Knee conspicuous, armed with rough ridges. Ocrea inconspicuous. Flagellum to 2 m long. Leaf ecirrate, to about 1 m long, with petiole to 12 cm; leaflets to about 15 on each side of the rachis, rather distant, and broad, the longest to 40 cm long by 3 cm wide, armed with short bristles on 3 nerves above, ± unarmed below, the terminal 2 leaflets joined shortly. Inflorescences male and female superficially similar, to about 3 m long with about 8 partial inflorescences to 60 cm long each. Male rachillae about 12 mm long; female to 3 cm long; all bracts in inflorescences densely covered with minute prickles. Ripe fruit unknown. Seedling leaf bifid.
Distribution
Rare: only known from Selangor, Trengganu and Johore in Malaya; elsewhere in Billiton.
Vernacular
rotan kerai
[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
Cane of moderate to good quality, collected as rotan kerai''.
[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