Calamus acanthophyllus Becc.

Dwarf acaulescent rattan. Stem very short, bulbous, erect, usually mostly subterranean, up to c. 5 cm diam. Leaves ecirrate, to 1.5 m long; leaf bases thick, leathery, surrounding the bulbous stem; knee absent; flagellum absent; petiole up to 90 cm long, the sheathing base split open, tubular only in the young state, distally petiole c. 0.5 cm wide, sparsely armed with yellow spines to 0.5 cm long; leaflets to 14 on each side of the rachis, arranged in groups of 2–3, held in different planes, the whole leaf hence plumose, longest leaflets 15–23 x 0.8–1.5 cm, armed with abundant stiff yellow spines on adaxial surface of the midrib and along margins. Inflorescences erect, 40–110 cm long, male and female superficially similar, the male branching to 1 or 2 orders, the female to 1 order. Fruit c. 1.2 x 0.9 cm, ± rounded, with a short beak to 0.2 cm, and covered in 13–14 vertical rows of ivory-coloured scales with dark margins. Seed c. 0.7 x 0.6 x 0.4 cm; endosperm homogeneous