Calamus nagabettai Fernandez & Dey. (PALMAE)
Common name
Kannada: Naga betha.
Description: Robust, clustering, high climbing canes; stems to 25 m or more long. Leaves up to 5 m long, upper ones cirrate, cirrus armed with claws; juvenile leaves brown; petioles up to 45 cm long, spiny; rachis spiny; sheaths yellowish green to green, brown tomentose when young, lower half densely spiny, spines in groups of 2-3, ca 3 x 0.5 cm, intermingled with bristle-like spines, mouth of sheath with up to 4 cm long spines; leaflets more or less equidistant ca 50 x 2 cm, linear-lanceolate, 3-5 veined. Male inflorescence up to 30 cm long; female inflorescence up to 70 cm long. The fruits vary from oblong to ovoid, measuring approximately 1.6 by 0.9 centimeters. They possess scales organized in 15 rows, appearing brown with transparent edges and displaying deep channels along the center. Within, the endosperm displays a ruminate structure.
Flowering : December – January.
Fruiting : May – June.
Distribution: India: In evergreen forests of Western Ghats. Karnataka, Kerala. Endemic.
Uses: A robust hard cane, used for making lathis, walking-sticks and for the frame work of furniture etc. It, however, is in short supply.
