Category:CALAMUS
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.
- Exploring for Palms in Fiji
- Hukaung Valley Rattan Survey
- New Species of Calamus from Lao and Myanmar
- Four new Species of Calamus from Laos and Thailand.
- Taxonomy, biology and ecology of rattan, Dr. John Dransfield
- New rattans from New Guinea Dr.'s William J. Baker, and John Dransfield
- Status of some species of rattans in the forests of the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India
- Sustainable harvesting of wild rattan: viable concept or ecological oxymoron? Dr. S.F. Siebert
- TRADITIONAL RATTAN GARDENS IN CENTRAL KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA. Dr.'s Yudi F. Arifin and R. Mitlöhner
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO RATTAN - THE BIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND TO EXPLOITATION AND THE HISTORY OF RATTAN RESEARCH Dr. John Dransfield
- Systematics, Ecology and Management of Rattans in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam The Biological Bases of Sustainable Use by Dr. Charles M. Peters, and Dr. Andrew Henderson, with contributions from Dr. Nguyễn Quốc Dựng and Dr. Thibault Ledecq
"CALAMUS"
The following 114 pages are in this category, out of 114 total.