Pandanus drupaceus

Pandanus drupaceus
	Botanical illustration of the drupe of Pandanus drupaceus (left).
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Pandanales
Family:	Pandanaceae
Genus:	Pandanus
Species:	P. drupaceus
Binomial name
	Pandanus drupaceus; Thouars
Synonyms
	Pandanus strigilis Carmich. ex Balf.f. ; Pandanus strigilis Carmich. ex Balf.f. ; Vinsonia drupacea (Thouars) Gaudich.

Pandanus drupaceus is a species of plant in the family Pandanaceae, endemic to Mauritius.

Description

A low-lying, spreading, freely-branching tree. Decumbent branches can lie along the ground and root to form new trees. There are only a few stilt-roots at the base of the trunk, and the pale grey bark is cracked and fissured.

It can easily be distinguished from related species by its rosettes of wide, flat, stiff, incurved leaves. These have reddish-orange marginal spines only near the tip of the leaf, and not near the leaf base. (Pandanus rigidifolius is the only other local species of Pandanus to have rigid, incurved leaves but it is a smaller decumbent species and its leaves are smaller and replicate.)

The large (20–25 cm) fruit-head is held erect on a short peduncle. Each fruit-head is packed with 20-30 purple, flattened, angular drupes.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Distribution

It was endemic to Mauritius, where it was formerly common in the highlands. It still occurs in wet areas and marshes near Midlands and Plaine Champagne, but also dryer rocky outcrops.

References

^ Vaughan RE, Wiehe PO (1953) The genus Pandanus in the Mascarene Islands. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany 55(356): 1-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.1953.tb00001.x.
^ Strahm, W.A. 1993. The conservation and restoration of the flora of Mauritius and Rodrigues. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis (2 vols.), Reading University, UK.
^ Vaughan, R.E. and Wiehe, P.O. 1953. Flore des Mascareignes, Genus Pandanus. The Sugar Industry Research Institute, Mauritius, ORSTOM, Paris and RBG, Kew.

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[1] Vaughan RE, Wiehe PO (1953) The genus Pandanus in the Mascarene Islands. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany 55(356): 1-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.1953.tb00001.x.

[2] Strahm, W.A. 1993. The conservation and restoration of the flora of Mauritius and Rodrigues. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis (2 vols.), Reading University, UK.

[3] Vaughan, R.E. and Wiehe, P.O. 1953. Flore des Mascareignes, Genus Pandanus. The Sugar Industry Research Institute, Mauritius, ORSTOM, Paris and RBG, Kew.

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