Calamus blumei (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Calamus blumei Becc.

Family: Palmae

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: coo (= coon) cemee (= cemees), rotan tukas (Perak), rotan riman (Sabah)
• Thailand: wai kaepung (Surattani), wai kunun (Trang).

Distribution

Thailand (Surattani, Trang), Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo.

Uses

Good quality cane, but rarely sufficiently abundant to be commercially significant; in Sarawak the cane is used for making baskets and mats.

Observations

Clustering climber to 20 m tall. Stem 812 mm in diameter without leafsheaths, with sheaths to 20 mm in diameter. Flagellum to 1.5 m long. Leaflets diamondshaped. Found in lowland and hill rain forest up to 800 m altitude. Although C. blumei is quite widespread, populations are small and rather rare. Easily recognized by its diamondshaped leaflets, but not to be confused with Korthalsia and Ceratolobus species. Species of Calamus with diamondshaped leaflets are still poorly known taxonomically, mainly because specimens are inadequate.

Selected sources

4, 14, 18.