Calamus (palm)
genus of palms
Calamus is a genus of flowering plants in the palm family Arecaceae, and is one of several genera known as rattan palms. There are an estimated 400 species in this genus, all native to tropical and subtropical Asia, Africa, and Australia.
Description
Species in this genus are mostly climbers with long, slender, flexible stems, but some are erect shrubs and some have no apparent stem (acalescent). They may be clustering or single-stemmed. The leaves are pinnate with an even number of leaflets, in the climbers they may be variously barbed or clothed in spines (including the leaf sheath). Climbers also produce armed tendrils – either from the leaf sheath, in which case it is known as a 'flagellum', or as an extension of the midrib and known as a 'cirrus'. Climbing species will often reach the forest canopy, and one plant was recorded as being 185 m (607 ft) long. In some species, such as Calamus rudentum, the inflorescence also has a flagellum.
All species are dioecious, meaning that male and female inflorescences are produced on separate plants. They both arise from the leaf axils and are pendant and branched, and may variously have barbs, spines or cirri.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Calamus (palm)” as genus of palms. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as genus of palms. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q165260. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Calamus (palm)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.