Volume 11 > Part 3 > Year 2013 > Page 360 > Arecaceae > Calamus

18. Calamus godefroyi Becc.wfo-0000756063

Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. (Calcutta) 11(1): 267. 1908.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Slender clustering rattan. All parts drying pale green. Stem without sheaths ca 0.9 cm diam., with sheaths ca 1.5 cm diam., internodes 15–17 cm long. Leaves ecirrate; sheaths bearing scattered triangular, somewhat flattened black spines to 1.1 by 0.6 cm, with paler bases, the spine bases sometimes rather oblique and downswept, these often interspersed with much smaller black spines to 0.2 cm long, also with swollen bases, scattered caducous indumentum present between spines; ocrea very short, sometimes with a group of spines opposite the petiole; knee present; flagellum to ca 50 cm long; petiole absent in mature climbing stems, present in juveniles, up to 3 cm long; rachis 50–60 cm long, armed with scattered black tipped reflexed spines with swollen bases; leaflets narrow lanceolate, 15–17 on each side of the rachis, regularly arranged, the longest to 27 by 2 cm, the tips long acuminate, adaxially bright shiny green, abaxially paler with some very thin grey caducous indumentum, bristly along mid vein both adaxially and abaxially and along margins. Inflorescences to 1.3 m long, including a short terminal flagellum, the male and female superficially similar, the male branched to 3 orders, the female to 2 orders; partial inflorescences up to ca 11, ca 10–30 cm apart, up to 27 cm long; rachillae strongly curled, the male to 1.5 by 0.1 cm, mostly much shorter, the female 1–2.5 by 0.15 cm. Mature fruit rounded, ca 1.3 cm diam., with a short beak to 0.1 by 0.1 cm, and covered in 17 vertical rows of pale straw-coloured channelled scales with darker margins. Seed ca 1 by 1 by 0.7 cm, flattened laterally with a hollow at the chalaza, deeply grooved and almost brain-like; endosperm homogeneous. Seedling leaf not recorded.

Thailand : NORTH-EASTERN: Nong Khai.

Distribution : Cambodia (type), Laos.

Ecology : Evergreen forests.

Vernacular : Wai nam (หวายน้ำ)(Nong Khai).

Uses: Not recorded, but the cane is likely to be of good quality.

Conservation Status: Likely to be threatened by land clearance.

Notes: Very similar to Indian Calamus rotang L., from which it may not be distinct.