Volume 11 > Part 3 > Year 2013 > Page 477 > Arecaceae > Plectocomia

2. Plectocomia himalayana Griff.wfo-0000275161

Calcutta J. Nat. Hist. 5: 100. 1845; Evans et al., A Field Guide to the Rattans of Lao PDR: 78. 2001.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Robust clustering rattan. Stem climbing to 10 m or more, without sheaths 0.5–4 cm diam., with sheaths 1–10 cm diam., internodes up to ca 30 cm long. Leaves cirrate; leaf sheath mid green, armed with abundant combs of yellow slender spines not exceeding 1.5 cm long, the spines in groups of 20 or more, caducous pale indumentum present on sheath and spines; ocrea absent; knee absent, flagellum absent; petiole very short or absent in distal leaves, to 3 cm long, ca 2 cm wide, deeply channelled; rachis to 3 m long; cirrus to ca 1 m long; leaflets over 40 on each side of the rachis, irregularly arranged in groups and fanned within the groups, the largest 45–50 by 3.5–4 cm, long acuminate in a fine thread to 7 cm long, the lower surface the same colour as the upper surface, never having grey indumentum. Inflorescences produced simultaneously in the axils of many uppermost leaves, the male and female superficially similar, to 2 m long and bearing pendulous first order branches to 80 cm long, bearing conspicuous pale brown bracts, tubular at first, soon splitting along their length, each subtending a short rachilla, bracts in male inflorescences 4–5.5 cm long, male rachillae 2–2.8 cm long, bracts in female inflorescence 4–5.5 cm long, female rachillae 1.2–2.5 cm long, all bracts becoming chestnut brown with age and persisting to fruiting. Fruit at maturity rounded, to 1.5 cm diam., with a short beak to 0.2 by 0.2 cm and covered in ca 26 vertical rows of dull brown scales with smooth margins and non-spiny tips. Seed rounded, basally somewhat flattened, ca 0.9 cm diam.; endosperm homogeneous.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai.

Distribution : E Himalaya (type), China, Laos.

Ecology : Evergreen forests, at 1,600 m alt.

Vernacular : Wai hok (หวายหก)(Chiang Mai).

Conservation Status: Not known.

Notes: In Thailand known from a single collection from Chiang Mai.