1378
|
Synonym |
: |
Calamus
monoecus Roxb. |
|
Family |
: |
Arecaceae |
|
Local
name |
: |
English- . Rattan,Common rattan Malayalam- Arichural,Chooral |
|
Flowering
and fruiting period |
: |
October-May |
|
Distribution |
: |
Western Ghats
and Sri Lanka |
|
Distribution
in Kerala |
: |
Idukki, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad, Alappuzha |
|
Habitat |
: |
In sacred
groves near coastal regions and backwaters |
|
Uses |
|
Cane is used for making rough baskets for plucking
tea leaves and for carrying building materials. Split canes are largely used
for making bags, 'jhapi', a kind of small bucket used in villages for
measuring grain, and for making chair bottoms. The young leaves are also
eaten as a vegetable by tribal people |
|
Key botanical characters: Clustering
canes, stem to 10 m long, with sheaths to 1.3 cm in diameter, without sheaths
to 1 cm, internodes to 45 cm long. Leaf to 80 cm, ecirrate; sheath green,
spiny, spines to 1 cm long, needle-like, yellow; knee prominent; flagellum to
2.5 m long; petiole absent; rachis spiny; spines to 1 cm long, yellow with
black tip; leaflets 35 x 2 cm, regular, long acuminate, tip armed with
bristles, margins spinulose, median vein ciliate beneath from centre upwards.
Inflorescence to 3 cm long; primary sheath closely sheathing, armed with
minute spines; partial inflorescences 4-5, to 70 cm long; secondary sheaths
2.5 cm long, tapering at the base and expanding into a cup at the upper
region; male rachillae to 3 cm long, recurved, female rachillae to 8 cm long.
Involucrophorum not stalked; involucre cup shaped. Fruit ovoid, scales in 21
rows, straw yellow; faintly channeled along the middle, endosperm not smooth |
||
Comments
Post a Comment