Data from: Morphometric analysis of the rattan Calamus javensis complex (Arecaceae: Calamoideae)

Calamus javensis (Calamoideae) is a slender rattan common in tropical
rainforests. The species is very polymorphic and forms a species complex
together with some undetermined forms and the species C. acuminatus, C.
amplijugus, C. congestiflorus, C. corrugatus, C. elopurensis, C.
hypertrichosus, C. impar, and C. tenompokensis.Within the complex,
themorphological variation and similarities among the entities are too
difficult to solve with traditional morphological observation. Therefore,
two multivariate analyses, MDS (multidimensional scaling) and hierarchical
cluster analysis (HCA) with UPGMA (unweighted pair group method with
arithmetic mean) were used for two datasets, quantitative data only and in
combination with qualitative data. The inclusion of qualitative characters
did not make significant differences in the cluster results. Of all nine
taxa included in the complex, only two clusters resulted from the analysis
next to two forms based on few specimens. Only C. tenompokensis was
recognized as a separate cluster, while all other taxa were combined into
one typical C. javensis cluster. Morematerial may result in the
recognition of the two forms as distinct species.