Daemonorops longipes
(Griff.) Mart.
Long pedubcle rattan
Wikimedia Commons - Dr.S.Soundarapandian
What to Eat
Edible parts: Shoots, Cabbage, Palm heart
The young shoots are eaten as palm heart or cabbage.
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. It grows on the edges of freshwater swamps and beside streams. It grows in lowland dipterocarp forests.
Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, SE Asia,
How to Identify
A rattan or palm. It grows in clusters. The stems can be climbing and 3 cm across. The internodes are 5-12 cm long. The sheaths are bright green with curved spines. The leaves can be 4.5 m long including a 1.25 m long tendril. There are 50 leaflets on each side of the stalk. They are narrow and regularly arranged. The flowering shoots are 75 cm long. The fruit are oval and 1.5-1.8 cm long.
How to Grow
Plants can be grown from seeds.
Other Uses
The stems are used for making rattan furniture and craftwork. The long and slender stems of rattan are put to various uses according to their size, length, flexibility, elasticity and toughness. The most slender canes are employed entire for binding purposes, and in making chairs, blinds, mats, wicker or basketwork, fishing implements, etc. Twisted together, they make very strong cables. The largest and more resistent canes are used entire as cables, the framework of wicker chairs etc. Usually, however, for many purposes the stems are split throughout their length into 2 - 4 or more strips from which the inner soft brittle and spongy portion is removed by means of a knife or same other instrument, so as to leave the external portion, which is hard, tough, flexible, elastic and has its outer surface very clean and smooth as if it had been varnished. Strips vary in width according to the use to which they are to be put. Those for delicate work, such as the network of furniture, small bags, hats, etc, are from 1 - 3mm wide; those employed as lashings in native housebuilding or in fastening the removable head of the Malay axe to its handle are from 5-6 mm wide. Collecting and preparing the stems is very simple. The stem is cut near the ground and detached from the trees by taking a strong hold of its base and thus pulling down the entire plant with its leaves. The most recent growth at the top of the plant is removed and then, handling it from the upper end, the stem is forcibly drawn in the opposite direction between two pieces of wood, thus removing the spiny coverings. It is then cut into lengths of about 5 metres, each piece is bent into two equal parts and the stems are fastened into bundles ready for market. The most valued stems are not thicker than a man's little finger and have a fine polished straw-yellow glassy surface.
Notes
There are 115 Daemonorops species.
Names & Synonyms
Huwi tiku, Rotan buah, Rotan kembong, Rotan rundang, Rotan sabut, Rotan tanah
References (2)
- Burkill, I.H., 1966, A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol 1 (A-H) p 763
- Sukarya, D. G., (Ed.) 2013, 3,500 Plant Species of the Botanic Gardens of Indonesia. LIPI p 775
