Calamus sedens (Palmae: Lepidocaryoideae)

Abstract

Griffith (1844) described Calamus ramosissimus basing this taxon on a staminate inflorescence of unknown origin but presumed to have been collected near Malacca. Martius (1855) transferred the species to Daemonorops. Beccari, in preparing his palm account for Hooker's Flora of British India, did not see the type of C. ramosissimus but interpreted the species on plate 207 in Griffith's folio work Palms of British East India (1850), equating with it specimens of a true Calamus collected in Perak by Scortechini and Kunstler. Subsequent authors have followed Beccari's interpretation (Ridley (1925) and Furtado (1956)). Recently I have been able to examine Griffith's palm collections in the Martius herbarium in Brussels and have discovered a specimen, annotated by Martius as having been sent by Griffith, and corresponding to the plate of Calamus ramosissimus. This specimen, undoubtedly the holotype, is not, however, a species of Calamus, but is a staminate inflorescence of Daemonorops longipes (Griff.) Mart. first described as Calamus longipes by Griffith, simultaneously with C. ramosissimus. The species of Calamus described by Beccari under the name C. ramosissimus belongs to ? Platyspathus, species of which bear inflorescences superficially similar to those of Daemonorops. As no other name has been published, it is thus necessary to create a new name for this well-known Malayan species, while the epithet ramosissimus should be included in synonymy under Daemonorops longipes. I thank the Director of the Brussels Herbarium for allowing me to consult the Martius Herbarium.