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17: Fibre plants

Pandanus leram Jones ex Fontana var. andamanensium (Kurz) B.C. Stone

PANDANACEAE

Pandanus andamanensium Kurz.

Indonesia: pandan wong (Sundanese).

The Andaman Islands, Indonesia (southern coast of Java).

The leaves are used in Java to make mats for local use. However, the leaves are thick and leathery and only suitable for coarse work. In the Andaman Islands (India) the leaves are used to make various articles of apparel (e.g. ceremonial waist girdles) and for thatching. The fruits are eaten after cooking and the fibrous parts of the fruits are made into paintbrushes.

A dioecious tree, 5—15(—18) m tall, not or sparingly branched, with a robust, fairly annulate trunk and more or less developed prop roots. Leaves rather thick and rigid, linear, 1.5—3 m x 8—12 cm, margin and underside of midrib with numerous slender prickles, apex tail-like, pellucid cross lines or transverse ribs absent. Male inflorescence a massive branched raceme of spikes; spikes oblong, composed of numerous phalanges each consisting of about 20 stamens on a stout column 6—7 mm long. Female inflorescence a solitary, globose head, composed of several-celled carpellate phalanges. Fruit a syncarpous polydrupe, ellipsoid to globose, 18—31 cm x 18—24 cm; carpels in fruit 7—15 cm x 3—7 cm, much broader than thick, red when ripe; stigmas 3—14, distributed over the top of the carpel, broad, flat, erecto-patent, in ripe carpels often caducous; connate endocarps slightly below the middle of the carpel. In Java Pandanus leram var. andamanensium is found in Barringtonia-association. In the Andaman Islands it is common in swampy locations. Pandanus leram var. andamanensium is presumably the wild form of Pandanus leram, whereas the other variety, Pandanus leram var. leram (Pandanus leram sensu stricto), is a more or less cultivated form (cultivar or group of cultivars), grown for its large edible fruits. According to B.C. Stone, Pandanus leram is classified in subgenus Rykia, section Hombronia.

[3]Awashti, A.K., 1988. Screw pine (Pandanus) among aborigines of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Journal of the Andaman Science Association 4(2): 153—154.
[4]Awasthi, A.K., 1991. Ethnobotanical studies of the Negrito Islanders of Andaman Islands, India — the Great Andamanese. Economic Botany 45(2): 274—280.
[6]Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963—1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
[30]Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1948—1976. The wealth of India: a dictionary of Indian raw materials and industrial products. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, New Delhi, India. 4441 pp.
[71]Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch-Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd Edition. 3 volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp. (3rd Edition, 1950. W. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands / Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 pp.)
[139]Purseglove, J.W., 1968—1972. Tropical crops. Longman, London, United Kingdom. Dicotyledons, 2 volumes (1968) 719 pp. Monocotyledons, 2 volumes (1972) 607 pp.
[177]Stone, B.C., 1975. Notes on the Pandanaceae of Ceylon, with a review of the species cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, and those found in its Herbarium. Ceylon Journal of Science (Biological Sciences) 11(2): 109—122.

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

Brink, M., Jansen, P.C.M. & Bosch, C.H., 2003. Pandanus leram Jones ex Fontana var. andamanensium (Kurz) B.C. Stone. 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