Volume 11 > Part 3 > Year 2013 > Page 361 > Arecaceae > Calamus

20. Calamus guruba Buch.-Ham.wfo-0000756214

in Mart., Hist. Nat. Palm.: 3 (fasc. 7. Ed. 1): 211. 1838; Evans et al., A Field Guide to the Rattans of Lao PDR: 30. 2001.— Daemonorops guruba (Buch.-Ham.) Mart., Hist. Nat. Palm. 3: 330. 1853.— Palmijuncus guruba (Buch.-Ham.) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 732. 1891.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Clustering moderate-sized rattan. Stems climbing to 20 m long, without sheaths 0.5–2 cm diam., with sheaths 13–30 cm diam., internodes up to 13–30 cm long. Leaves ecirrate; leaf sheaths dull green, very densely armed with upward pointing triangular, flattened dark brown to black spines of various lengths, 0.1–2.5 cm long, the largest with decurrent bases, bases in general rather swollen and pale, the margins often irregular and with abundant caducous pale brown indumentum on and between the spines, spines around the leaf sheath mouth much larger and longer than the rest, to 15 cm long, dark brown; knee present, armed as the rest of the sheath; ocrea 10–15 cm long or more, papery, mid-brown, soon disintegrating; flagellum to 0.75–3 m long; petiole 10–25 cm long, sparsely armed with dark brown reflexed spines to 0.5 cm; rachis 0.65–1.39 m, arcuate, armed with scattered and grouped refl exed hook-like spines; leaflets 35-50 on each side of the rachis, regularly arranged, rather widely spaced, the largest 25–45 by 1.7–2.2 cm, apical pair to 5 by 0.5 cm, very shortly joined near the base, adaxially with 3 veins bristly, abaxially the main vein bristly., Inflorescences 0.3–2.5 m long, the male and female superficially similar, the male branched to 3 orders, the female to 2 orders, with a terminal flagellum, and 2-8 partial inflorescences, each subtended by a conspicuous brown flattened papery open bract, tubular at its very base, sparsely to densely armed with short pale spines to 0.4 cm long; male rachillae crowded, to 1 by 0.2 cm, female rachillae to 10 by 0.3 cm. Fruit rounded, ca 0.7 cm diam., with a short beak to 0.15 by 0.1 cm and covered in 15–18 vertical rows of pale straw-coloured scales. Seed ca 0.5 cm diam., somewhat flattened on one side, the surface rugose; endosperm homogeneous. Seedling leaf not recorded.

Thailand : EASTERN: Nakhon Ratchasima; CENTRAL: Saraburi; SOUTH-EASTERN: Prachin Buri, Chanthaburi, Trat; PENINSULAR: Yala.

Distribution : India (Darjeeling) and Bangladesh (Bengal – type) to Peninsular Malaysia.

Ecology : Evergreen forests, to 250 m alt.

Vernacular : Wai khi kai (หวายขี้ไก่)(Peninsular).

Uses: Edible shoot.

Conservation Status: Probably not threatened.

Notes: Distinctive in the large expanded flattened inflorescence bracts.