ຫວາຍທູນ / Thoun Rattan

Wai thoun has a very strong solitary stem, and a leaf sheath that is often more than 5 cm in diameter, with a few thick spines. Stems reach up to 150 m long and 3 cm-5 cm in diameter. Leaves are 2 m-4 m long, bearing regularly spaced leaflets with stiff hairs on their upper surface. The leaf stalk is 20 cm-26 cm long and the inflorescence at least 2 m-6 m long, including the flagellum. Wai thoun fruit is 2 cm long and 1.4 cm wide, scaly and pale, with dark thin edges. The seeds are not ruminate. This species grows in evergreen forest everywhere in the country and is also found in Thailand and southern Vietnam. However, commercial harvesting of its flexible high quality cane means that it is now very rare in the wild, listed as threatened in the 1997 Plants Red Data Book.