''Plectocomiopsis'' is a dioecious

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the palm family found in

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

and

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> Hapaxanthic and armed with spines, they are a climbing

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 ...

, closely related to the '' Myrialepis'' palms.Uhl, Natalie W. and Dransfield, John (1987) ''Genera Palmarum - A classification of palms based on the work of Harold E. Moore''. Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press. / The name is Greek for "similar to ''

Plectocomia ''Plectocomia'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae native to China, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. Plants are dioecious, with male and female flowers produced on separate individuals. It contains the following known spec ...

''", another close relative.Riffle, Robert L. and Craft, Paul (2003) ''An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms''. Portland: Timber Press. /

Description

The stems are small, densely clustering, spiny, and high climbing with long internodes and conspicuous scars. Young

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are undivided or with few segments, in maturity becoming pinnate and cirrate with a tubular, unarmed or sparsely armed, scaly leaf sheath. Ocreas present, entire or becoming tattered. The petiole, when present, and the proximal end of the rachis are deeply channeled and spiny; the cirrus and distal end of the rachis are armed with regularly arranged reflexed climbing spines. The single fold, lanceolate leaflets may be few to numerous, usually with armed margins and caducous scales, with conspicuous midribs and transverse veinlets. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is produced at the top of the stem amongst the most distal, often reduced leaves, axis adnate to the internode and emerging from the leaf sheath mouth. The peduncle is short, the prophyll is tubular and two-keeled, peduncular bracts usually absent, and the rachis is much longer than the peduncle. The rachis bracts are tubular and more or less distichous, each subtending a horizontal or pendulous first order branch which features basal, tubular bracts with triangular limbs carrying monopodial

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

clusters. In ''P. corneri'' the inflorescence is branched to three orders instead of two, with flowers borne on the axes of all orders. The male flowers are arranged in clusters of up to 32, each flower held in a cuplike rachilla bract with a two-keeled bracteole. The calyx is thick, leathery and tubular, with three lobes, and abaxially covered in scaly trichomes; the corolla is similar, with two distal splits forming three triangle shaped lobes, also bearing scales. The six stamens are laterally fused forming a tube which is tipped by six free, reflexed filaments with short, oblong anthers. The

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

is discate and elliptic with tectate exine; pistillode minute. Female flowers are usually borne in clusters of two to four but may be solitary, and, like the male's, are carried in cuplike

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s with two-keeled bracteoles, with the occasional barely developed second bracteole. The

calyx Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to: Biology * Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...

is also thick and leathery, thrice lobed and scaly, usually persistent into fruit; corolla leathery, scaly, with three lobes. The staminodial ring bears six short lobes and sagging, empty

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

gynoecium Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

egg-shaped to cylindrical, the apical stigmas becoming scaly nearing antithesis. Three incomplete

locule A locule (plural locules) or loculus (plural loculi) (meaning "little place" in Latin) is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism (animal, plant, or fungus). In angiosperms (flowering plants), the term ''locule'' usu ...

s are present, each bearing one antropous, basally attached

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the megasporangium), and the fe ...

. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

has one, rarely two

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s, covered in persistent

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

whorls, and stigmatic apical remains. The epicarp is matted in irregular vertical rows of reflexed scales, with a thin mesocarp and an undifferentiated endocarp. The

is basally attached, spherical, usually depressed, with a thick sarcoesta, a homogeneous endosperm and a basal

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

Distribution and habitat

''Plectocomiopsis triquetra'' and ''P. wrayi'' are low land peat swamp forest inhabitants, the former in Borneo, the latter in Malaysia. ''P. corneri'' and ''P. mira'' are Dipterocarp

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

dwellers to 700 m, and ''P. geminiflora'' is distributed through a variety of tropical forest types to 1200 m.

Cultivation and uses

The ''Plectocomiopsis'' species are not usually cultivated, being extremely spiny and requiring particular tropical conditions. In their natural range they are used in basketry, however their fragile nature prevents them from being a common rattan source. The palm heart of ''P. geminiflora'', despite its bitter taste, is regarded as a delicacy in

; villagers regard some of the others as edible and some as poisonous.

References

External links

''Plectocomiopsis'' on NPGS/GRINGBIF portalFairchild Guide to Palms: ''Plectocomiopsis''Naturekind.org images
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q144325 Calamoideae Arecaceae genera Taxa named by Odoardo Beccari Dioecious plants