Calamus tenuis

Calamus (KAL-ah-muhs) tenuis (teh-NOO-ihs)
Vientiane, Laos. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Scientific Classification
Genus: Calamus (KAL-ah-muhs) Species: tenuis (teh-NOO-ihs)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
Asia
Morphology
Habit: Clustering Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
wai nyair, nyair (Lao Loum).

Habitat and Distribution

India (North-east and North-central), Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand (North), Laos (Central),

Vientiane, Laos. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.

Vietnam (Tonkin) and Indonesia (Sumatra and Java). Probably also Vietnam (Cochinchina). Found in scrub, often in areas which flood regularly, including very degraded habitats and fairly scrubby stands. at 200 - 300 m.

Description

Climbing, growing in clumps, stem very large, slender, scandent. Leaves glabrous, pinnate, 45-75 cm long, setose above, leaflets 20-30 on each side, equidistant, alternate, linear lanceeolate, acuminate, gradually becoming smaller upward, setose above, up to 30 cm long and about 1.5 cm broad. Petiole short, stout and pale; petiole and the nerves of the leaflets armed with straight spines. Leaf sheath armed with flat spines and bearing whip-like armed sterile inflorescence (flagella). Bracts many, elongated, tubular spiny, lower with a short limb and scattered recurved spines, upper shortly scruffy. Inflorescence very long, decompound, primary branches 4-6, flexuose. Flowers minute, male about 2.5 mm long, secund in 3-4 series, imbricate - suberect. Fruit subglobose, about 1.5 cm in diameter, mucronate; scales pale. Type: Described from Bendhari Bet of the inhabitants of Chittagong. Editing by edric.

Beccari (1913) clearly stated that he considered C. horrens no more than the Javan representative of C. tenuis but for some reason did not formally synonymise them. We have examined the type and good modern material from Java and could find no differences from C. tenuis. Over 20 further specimens from Java were examined by JD in BO but are not cited here. The specimen above also represents the first published record from Sumatra. The inclusion of the Indonesian populations makes C. tenuis one of the most widespread of all rattans, with a range comparable to that of C. viminalis. (J. Dransfield, A Synopsis of the Rattans (Arecaceae: Calamoideae) of Laos and Neighbouring Parts of Indochina. 2002)

Comments and Curiosities

Uses: The cane is of high quality for handicrafts and accepted in trade. The shoot is edible. The cultivation of this species for the production of edible shoots is becoming increasingly widespread in Laos, and also occurs in North-east Thailand.

Conservation: The species occurs throughout much of Asia and southeast Asia south into Indonesia. Although it often occurs in areas under heavy human population pressure, its ability to survive in degraded forest suggests that it is unlikely to be threatened with extinction in the near future. It is therefore listed as Least Concern. The species occurs from northeast and northern central India east through Bangladesh and Myanmar to Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR, as well as in Indonesia, The species is severely threatened in Java by habitat degradation, otherwise no specific threats known. (IUCN Redlist 2011).