Calamus acanthospathus Griff.

Stems solitary or weakly clustered, climbing, to 30 m, 1.5-5 cm in diam. Leaf sheaths green with brown hairs, with sparsely to densely arranged, sometimes in short rows, brown, flattened spines to 1 cm, these with sinuous margins, densely hairy initially; ocreas present, densely bristly; knees present; flagella present, to 5.6 m; petioles very short or absent; rachis to 1.4 m with 8-15 broadly lanceolate pinnae per side, these regularly arranged, sometimes somewhat irregularly, especially near base of leaf; middle pinnae 18-30 cm, 3.5-7 cm wide at mid-point, adaxial veins and margins bristly; cirri absent. Inflorescences to 3 m, flagellate; inflorescence bracts tubular; rachillae short and strongly recurved. Fruits yellowish brown, ovoid to ellipsoid, to 2.5 × 1.5 cm, scales grooved.

A tropical plant. In Indochina it grows between about 1,500-1,800 m altitude. It is in evergreen forest. In southern China is grows in lowland forests between 800-2,400 m above sea level.

The ripe fruit are eaten.