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LAWYER CANE FACTS |
Map is from The Atlas of Living Australia web site, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License
Common Name
Lawyer Cane
Other Names
Wait-a-while, Hairy Mary
Description
Lawyer Cane is a climbing palm that grows as a vine. The leaves are compound with up to forty leaflets making up the leaf. It has many prickly spines on the leaf sheaths and leaf stalks and develops long tendrils from the base of the leaves growing over a metre long with curved hooks along the length. It produces long flower spikes with small flowers from the base of the leaves. The fruit is white and covered in scales, growing to about 1 cm across. When walkers get caught in the hooked tendrils they may have to wait a while to untangle the hooks from their clothing, hence the common name "Wait-a-while".
Habitat
grows as a climbing vine in rainforest
Distribution
Calamus australis is found in north east Queensland and Cape York Peninsula.
Growth Characteristics
Height: climber with stems to 35m long
Classification
| Class: | Liliopsida | | Order: | Arecales | | Family: | Arecaceae | | Genus: | Calamus | | Species: | australis | | Common Name: | Lawyer Cane |
Relatives in same Genus
Calamus caryotoides
Calamus moti
Calamus muelleri
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