6646

17: Fibre plants

Pandanus copelandii Merr.

PANDANACEAE

Pandanus muricatus Elmer.

Philippines: bariu (Bikol), baleo (Bisaya), lagutlut (Tagalog).

The Philippines, wild and cultivated from northern Luzon to southern Mindanao.

The leaves contain strong fibres and are used in the Philippines to make mats, baskets, bags and hats of good quality.

A dioecious, thicket-forming shrub 2—4 m tall or almost unbranched tree 6—9 m tall with trunk 7—15 cm in diameter ringed with leaf scars and blunt spines; prop roots short. Leaves 1—3 m x 3—8 cm, margins and underside of midrib with prickles 1—3 mm long, coriaceous, ascending, recurving above the middle, M-shaped in cross-section, with up to 160 parallel secondary veins. Male inflorescence a raceme of 4 or more spikes, 80 cm or longer, each spike in axil of a bract; bracts 75 cm x 5 cm, lower ones largest; spike cylindrical, 7—10 cm x 10—12 mm, consisting of dense staminate phalanges with free filament tips 0.2 mm long, anthers 4.5 mm long with pointed connective 0.5 mm long. Female inflorescence (inodorous) with trigonal peduncle 50—100 cm long; rachis with (1—)3—8 spicate syncarpous heads, each subtended by a 10 cm long bract; head ellipsoid, 7—15 cm x 4—7 cm, bearing numerous drupes; drupe 19—23 mm x 4—5 mm x 2—3 mm, 5—6-angled pyramidal, lower fused part 4—6 mm long, stigma 4 mm long, lower mesocarp fibrous outside, fleshy inside, endocarp bullet-shaped, hard but very thin. Seed 2—3 mm in diameter. In the Philippines Pandanus copelandii occurs widely at low and medium altitudes. Leaf harvesting can start when the plants are 3—4 years old. Although H. St. John is of the opinion that inflorescences with solitary heads are rare, B.C. Stone has given variety status to those specimens: var. panchoi B.C. Stone (head solitary, pendulous, cylindrical, 14 cm x 4.5 cm on peduncle 50—60 cm long). According to B.C. Stone, Pandanus copelandii is classified in subgenus Acrostigma, section Acrostigma.

[19]Brown, W.H., 1951—1957. Useful plants of the Philippines. Reprint of the 1941—1947 edition. 3 volumes. Technical Bulletin 10. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Bureau of Printing, Manila, the Philippines. Vol. 1 (1951) 590 pp.,
[36]Cruz, O.J., 1984. Status of research and development of minor fibres. In: Rubio, P.P. & Llemit, N.V. (Editors): Lesser used fiber crops. Proceedings of the Seminar-Workshop on Research and Development of Fiber Crops Other than Abaca and Cotton, 25—27 August 1982. Philippine Council for Agriculture and Resources Research and Development, Los Baños, the Philippines. pp. 3—6.
[132]Panot, I.A., 1981. The production of bariu. Canopy International 7(10): 13—14.
[166]St. John, H., 1969. Revision of the genus Pandanus Stickman. Part 34. Four species from the Philippines. Pacific Science 23(3): 355—366.
[176]Stone, B.C., 1974. Towards an improved infrageneric classification in Pandanus (Pandanaceae). Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 94(4): 459—540.
[179]Stone, B.C., 1978. Revisio Pandanacearum. Part 1. Pandanus subgenera Coronata Martelli and Acrostigma (Kurz) Stone, Flora Malesiana, Precursores. Federation Museums Journal 23 (New Series): 1—73.

M. Brink, P.C.M. Jansen & C.H. Bosch

Brink, M., Jansen, P.C.M. & Bosch, C.H., 2003. Pandanus copelandii Merr.. In: Brink, M and Escobin, R.P. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 17: Fibre plants. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea