Comparative studies of the fruit morphology of some species of Philippine rattans

This thesis studies and describes the fruit morphology of twenty species and varieties of Calamus, seven species and varieties of Daemonotrops, two species of Korthalsia, and a variety of Plectocomia. The fruit characters described include fruit shape, color, length, width scale color, shape, size, number of scales per vertical row and scales per lateral row beak size and color seed number, size, color, rumination, attachment sepal number, size, and shape and petal number, size, and shape. This study showed that fruit morphological variation was observed within the species and genera a single or a combination of characters are useful for the identification of some species or genera Calamus and Daemonorops fruits are not easily distinguishable. The results of the study reinforce other taxonomic evidences in delineating taxa only at the genus level