''Calamus draco'' is an Asian species of

rattan Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of ...

plant in the family

Arecaceae The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...

; its native range is from peninsular Thailand to western

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It has been given different definitions. The ...

.Willdenow CL (1799) ''Species Plantarum. Editio Quarta. Berolini''

erlin Erlin may refer to: Places *Erlin, Changhua, a township in Taiwan *Erlin, Ohio, an unincorporated community in the United States People

*Robbie Erlin (born 1990), American baseball pitcher *Erlin Geffrard (born 1987), artist and musician ...

ed. 4 2(1): 203. It is a source of the red resin known as

dragon's blood Dragon's blood is a bright red resin which is obtained from different species of a number of distinct plant genera: ''Calamus'' spp. (previously ''Daemonorops'') also including ''Calamus rotang'', '' Croton'', '' Dracaena'' and ''Pterocarpus''. ...

, which is a pigment with medicinal uses.

Description

''Calamus draco'' has stems in clusters forming individual

stems climbing up to 15 m., with sheaths to 30 mm diameter. Leaf fronds are described as cirrate (with a cirrus: extension of the rattan leaf tip armed with grappling hooks), produced from leaf-sheaths, which are bright green, bearing chocolate-coloured indumentum when young: they are 2.5 m long including petiole (up to 300 mm and armed with groups of short lateral spines to 6 mm long); the cirrus is about 1 m long. About 20 regularly arranged leaflets are on each side of the rachis. The mature fruit are more or less ovoid, 28 x 20 mm, covered in 16 vertical rows of scales and may be heavily encrusted with the "dragon's blood".. Calamus draco - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-023.jpg 9016Cusisine foods of Bulacan 13.jpg Dragon's blood (Daemomorops draco).jpg

References

External links

{{taxonbar, from=Q21248456, from2=Q3361630

draco Draco is the Latin word for serpent or dragon. Draco or Drako may also refer to: People * Draco (lawgiver) (from Greek: Δράκων; 7th century BC), the first lawgiver of ancient Athens, Greece, from whom the term ''draconian'' is derived * D ...

Flora of Malesia Flora of Indo-China Plants described in 1799