Rattan palms are a major feature of Asian tropical rainforests.
Whilst permanent forest plots in the tropics concentrate on tree distribution, we were curious as to whether climbing palms exhibited any discernible patterns of distribution. In a preliminary effort, all rattans occurring in a 2-hectare permanent plot in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore, were tagged, mapped and identified. Over a dozen species of rattan were found in the plot, and there were some interesting patterns of both abundance and distribution.