Calamus caryotoides more commonly known as Fishtail Lawyer Cane is a North-East Queensland tropical forest

Queensland tropical rain forests

The Queensland tropical rain forests are a terrestrial ecoregion located in northeastern Australia.-Setting:The ecoregion covers of northeastern coastal Queensland, from the coast up a series of plateaus and tablelands to the mountains behind the coast. The ecoregion comprises three separate...

 climbing palm with very thin (12 mm) flexible trunks; no crownshaft

Crownshaft

An elongated circumferential leaf base formation present on some species of palm is called a crownshaft.The leaf bases of some pinnate leaved palms form a sheath at the top of the trunk surrounding the bud where all the subsequent leaves are formed.The crownshaft...

; small spikes; dark green, glossy, fish-tail shaped leaves reaching up to 15 m high (5m spread); and very thin hooked flagella

It tends to clump and grow up into the shaded understory of Queensland's wet tropical forests

Wet Tropics of Queensland

The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km² of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range, stretching from Townsville to Cooktown, running in close parallel to the Great Barrier Reef...

, and is a close relative of the more infamous Calamus radicalis (aka Wait-a-While).

The Cairns Botanical Gardens records local Yidinydji

Yidiny language

Yidiny is a nearly extinct Australian Aboriginal language, spoken by the Yidindji tribe of northern Queensland.-Vowels:-Consonants:-Grammar:...

, Yirrganyydji, Djabuganydji, and Gungganydji use of the Fishtail Lawyer cane (also known to Yidinydji as Bugul, pronounced BOOK-KOOL) as follows:

The thin flexible trunks of this (and other) climbing palm made ideal building frames, or rope and string when split. The young shoots were eaten to cure headaches.