Calamus tapa Becc., Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. (Calcutta) 11(App.): 128 (1913)

Primary tabs

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Distribution

Map uses TDWG level 3 distributions (https://github.com/tdwg/wgsrpd)
Borneo present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
A very poorly known species, known only from west Kalimantan. (Dransfield, J. & Patel, M. 2005: Rattans of Borneo, an interactive key.)A

Conservation

  • Vulnerable. (Dransfield, J. & Patel, M. 2005: Rattans of Borneo, an interactive key.)A

Description

  • Habit - Climbing; not branching in the forest canopy; not dying after flowering. Plants dioecious.
    Leaf-sheath - Tubular for most of its length; flagellum long; knee present; with fewer spines than the rest of the sheath. Sheath surface lacking small horizontal ridges; without hairs or minute spines; green; scales on surface lacking. Leaf sheath with abundant spines; spines persistent; horizontally pointing; of more or less the same size; the larger spines tapered; the longest, excluding those at the mouth of the sheath less than 1cm. Spines straight; in life same colour as the leaf sheath; with smooth margins; the bases downswept and crescent-like. Spines mostly not grouped. Spines around the leaf sheath mouth scarcely different from those on the rest of the sheath. Ocrea - Absent. Leaf-stalk - Absent or usually less than 3cm. Leaves - Cirrate; rachis armed; not hairy. Undersurface of newly emerged leaflets same as upper surface. Scales absent from leaflet surfaces. Leaflets sessile; 1 to 10 on each side of rachis; regularly spaced and parallel; held in a single plane; lanceolate; the leaflet tip acute. 2 to 5cm wide; with none or very few brsitles; the margins with many bristles. Bristles not interlocking; stiff black greater than 0.5mm long. Leaflets scarcely plicate; the veins not radiating; midrib raised and prominent adaxially. Lowermost leaflets not reflexed across the stem. Apical leaflets not or scarcely joined; not less than 4 cm long.
    Inflorescence - Inflorescence axis erect along the axis, with clawed spines on the primary bracts; not rooting at its tip; much shorter than the leaves; the first bract not enclosing the inflorescences at anthesis. Partial inflorescence present; bracts at the base of the partial inflorescences wholly tubular with a neat mouth or a small open limb, much shorter than the partial inflorescence. Rachilla lacking an enclosing bract; not at all pressed against the subtending bract. Flowers arranged in two rows. Female rachillae not congested; without conspicuously stalked flower cups. Bracts on the rachillae not net-like. (Dransfield, J. & Patel, M. 2005: Rattans of Borneo, an interactive key.)A

Bibliography

    A. Dransfield, J. & Patel, M. 2005: Rattans of Borneo, an interactive key.
    B. World Checklist of Arecaceae