ຫວາຍໜາມຂາວ / White Thorn Rattane

Description. Stems clustered or solitary, sometimes branching above ground level, climbing, to 50 m long and 10 cm diameter. Leaf sheaths green with reddish-brown hairs, densely covered with stout, yellowishbrown, to 2 cm long spines, these usually borne in short rows; ocreas absent; knees absent; flagella absent; petioles absent or to 10 cm long; rachis to 2.1 m long with 18-40 broadly lanceolate leaflets per side, these clustered and spreading in different planes, sometimes almost regularly arranged, pendulous, grayish on the lower surfaces, with prominent sub-marginal veins; cirri present, to 1.2 m long. Inflorescences to 1.1 m long; flowering branch bracts to 5 cm long, not or scarcely hairy on outer surfaces; fruits globose to ellipsoid, to 2.3 cm diameter; fruit scales yellowish-brown, fringed only, without bristly, erect apices. Distribution and habitat. Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (also in China and Thailand) in lowland evergreen or montane forest at 100-1,700 m elevation. (M. Peters & A. Henderson, 2014).