*DING DONG*
"Hi there Mr Postman. Anything for me?"
"Seeds, you say? Now, who'd send me something like that..."
The good news is that mail makes it to my new address (I didn't take that for granted, even though it's only at the other side of the city). They sent me a potpourri of seeds, most of them palms. The order also contained germinated seeds of
Calamus oxleyanus, a rattan palm I'm absolutely not familiar with. It was a "let's see what will come out of that" purchase. Rattan palms are climbing palms that are usually covered with spines. Our new property has a mango tree in front, and I was looking for a natural burglar-repellent solution.
Each seed was planted in a grow bag with recycled compost/perlite. Two seeds were intimately involved and didn't want to disengage, so I planted them together.
Calamus oxleyanus is not a rare species, but it is not commonly found on the commercial seed market. The information below is taken from the
Palms of Southern Asia book.