Calamus leptopus

Calamus leptopus, known in Malay as rotan bacap, is a robust, clump-forming climbing rattan from the far south of Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Few rattans are as easy to recognise: the yellowish-green leaf stalk and leaf axis are speckled with grey to black blotches, one ringing the base of every spine.

Its large leaves, often about 5 m long, carry up to 40 bright green, hanging leaflets on each side and end in a long climbing whip. Older literature lists it as Daemonorops leptopus. It is widespread in the wild but usually met as single, isolated plants.

At a glance

• Native range: southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore
• Mature size: a few stems climbing to about 15 m
• Water: its home climate is ever-wet
• Cold hardiness: a plant of ever-wet tropical forest; keep it frost-free
• Indoors / outdoors: outdoors in the humid tropics; elsewhere a plant for a large, heated glasshouse

Care

Grow it warm, moist and humid, as befits a rattan of ever-wet tropical forest. The leaf sheaths and stalks carry stiff spines, and each leaf ends in a long climbing whip, so give it room to scramble away from paths, and wear gloves when handling it.

Why Palmpedia: Every plant is grown in our greenhouse in Almeirim, Portugal, and leaves us in a 15 L to 35 L pot.