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WHAT IS RATTAN?
It is usually called rattan a particular wood that is drawn out from the inner part of tropical reedshaped plants covered by thick bark. These plants are rush, manao, batang and others.
Is the bamboo the same plant?
No. the bamboo is apparently similar to the rush, but inside the reed is empty. Therefore the bamboo is not as malleable as rush that is bark, fold and/or draw. Bamboo furnitures and accessories have only the straight lines andcan be only in natural colours. You can't take away the bark from the reed, so it is impossible to tint it because it is entirely waterproof.
And the winker?
The winker is a plant producing thin branches with at most 5/6 mm of diameter who you can pleach baskets and small containers with.
And the little marrow?
The little marrow is obtained drawing rush reeds, that are the marrow, to a lot of thin reeds also of 2mm of diameter. |
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| Botanic curiosity: there was a reed that reached 10 cm of diameter and more than 175 m of length.
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| Flowering and flowers
Flowerings are individually producted by the knots of the leaf-bearing board. They change a lot in their structure and shape, and it is useful in the taxonomy. The appearance of the flower and the process of the flowering are favoured and spurred by a long period of dryness, high temperature followed by abundant precipitations.
Fruits
The fruits of the whole groups of rattan are covered by more superimposed lines of flakes. Under the flakes there is the rest of the pericarp. Generally the rattan fruits contain only a seed instead the others can have also three seeds. The reached maturation of the fruits pointed out by a hustychange of the colour and of the epicarp of the fruit.
Germination
The first sign of germination is the outcoming of a sort of thorn that is directly originated from the endosperm |
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The plants called rattan are thorny climbing palms that are found in the whole tropic and sub tropic. This kind of palm is the source of the raw material, very similar to bamboo, that is common used in the working and building of handcraft furniture and for smaller local aims.It is necessary to underline the important role that these plants carry out in the Asiatic south-east economy where they more or less represent one of the biggest import obtained from the forest
The rattan collectors use to reap the reed only when they need money in a short period of time, especially during those periods when the main cultivations are maturing. As said before, what is reaped is a very long reed which is the stem of the palm, once got free from the leaf-sheet. It is very simple to get mixed up between it and the classic bamboo reed especially when they are worked in stripes.
The trading name rattan wants to point out a group of order with a lot of kind furnishing a similar product. That is very interesting from the ecological point of view: in fact various kinds present different requirements, succeeding in living in surrounding with different climatic peculiarities.
These orders present some difference also from the reed production point of view, giving raw materials thick and long or short and thin with a good malleability or a good resistance to folding.
The rattan is often searched in the forest where it grows up wild, but there are some examples of rattan, also in Indonesia, that is planted and cultivated as a common culture.
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The rattans belong to calomoideae family and generally the palm with the most conspicuous turns for production belongs to calamus order that has 300/400 orders. The reed that is reaped from the rattan plant presents strength, flexibility and uniformity. The reed diameter can change from 3 to 6 mm and more, it depends from the order. The orders with trade interest represent about 20% of total order
The international trade of rattan began at the end of 18 century even if reeds were used also long time before, especially in the whole Asiatic south-east. From the beginning of the trade adventure of rattan, Singapore represented the main centre of natural and worked reed distribution. Also Sulawesi was a main point for the trading of the raw material breaking the work of the change to other countries |
| To have an idea of what the rattan trade has represented and still represents for the Asiatic south-east, you can think that at the end of 1970s the trader of Singapore gained from rattan about 21millions$, mostly coming from Indonesia that buy carved reed for an inner use.
It is necessary to underline that the most part of money comes from the export to the north America and Europe. The most recent statistic of Indonesian exports is represented by the aim of the oriental countries to export rattan for 60millions$. |
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