6654

17: Fibre plants

Pandanus luzonensis Merr.

PANDANACEAE

Pandanus calicarpus Martelli.

Philippines: alasás (Tagalog, Zambal), dasa (Tagalog).

Philippines (Luzon).

The leaves of Pandanus luzonensis are made into baskets and mats. Decoctions of the tips of fresh or dried prop roots are credited with diuretic properties.

A dioecious tree, up to 7 m tall, with ventral pleats of leaves prickly denticulate and with solitary heads. Carpellate phalanges ribbed and grooved longitudinally, apex first acuminoid, later truncate, closely crowded with stigmas. Pandanus luzonensis occurs in secondary forest and in thickets along streams, up to 400 m altitude. According to B.C. Stone, Pandanus luzonensis is classified in subgenus Pandanus sensu B.C. Stone, section Athrostigma.

[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.,
[114]Merrill, E.D., 1906. The flora of the Lamao forest reserve. The Philippine Journal of Science 1, Supplement: 1—141.
[135]Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. 620 pp.
[140]Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
[176]Stone, B.C., 1974. Towards an improved infrageneric classification in Pandanus (Pandanaceae). Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 94(4): 459—540.

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

Brink, M., Jansen, P.C.M. & Bosch, C.H., 2003. Pandanus luzonensis 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