Rattan is a climbing palm that can stretch hundreds of metres
The cane in a wicker chair comes from a palm, not a vine. Rattan is a group of roughly 600 climbing palm species from the tropical forests of Asia and Africa, whose hooked spines let them scramble up broad trees and reach lengths of hundreds of metres. Nearly all of it is still gathered wild.
Because rattans are palms, their stems never thicken. A young plant is already as wide as it will ever be, usually two to five centimetres, which lets it stand upright on its own before it starts climbing. Spines work as grappling hooks and fend off grazing animals, and many species offer hollow spines or leaf sheaths as shelters for ants, which in return guard the plant. Once cleaned, the stems resemble bamboo but are solid rather than hollow.
About 70% of the world's rattan grows in Indonesia, across Borneo, Sulawesi and Sumbawa. Clustering species send up clumps of up to 50 stems and can be harvested sustainably if cutting keeps pace with regrowth, but single-stemmed species die when cut. Harvesters taking stems too young, plus forest loss, now threaten supplies, and several producing countries require permits, with the Philippines also setting a yearly cutting limit.
The plant has surprising side uses. Some fruits taste sour like citrus, and some ooze a red resin called dragon's blood, once used to dye violins. In 2010 Italian scientists announced a process that bakes rattan with calcium, carbon and phosphate over about ten days into a near copy of bone. It was tested in sheep, reached human trials by 2023, and was studied aboard the International Space Station.
Its weaving has a history too. The Philippine solihiya pattern, a grid of sunbursts with hexagonal gaps that lets air flow in the heat, appears in Europe as Viennese braiding, used on the Thonet No. 14 chair.
Source: Rattan
