Pandanus copelandii (PROSEA)
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Introduction |
Pandanus copelandii Merr.
- Family: Pandanaceae
Synonyms
Pandanus muricatus Elmer.
Vernacular names
- Philippines: bariu (Bikol), baleo (Bisaya), lagutlut (Tagalog).
Distribution
The Philippines, wild and cultivated from northern Luzon to southern Mindanao.
Uses
The leaves contain strong fibres and are used in the Philippines to make mats, baskets, bags and hats of good quality.
Observations
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 × 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 × 5 cm, lower ones largest; spike cylindrical, 7-10 cm × 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 × 4-7 cm, bearing numerous drupes; drupe 19-23 mm × 4-5 mm × 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 P. 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 × 4.5 cm on peduncle 50-60 cm long). According to B.C. Stone, P. copelandii is classified in subgenus Acrostigma , section Acrostigma .
Selected sources
19, 36, 132, 166, 176, 179.
Authors
M. Brink, P.C.M. Jansen & C.H. Bosch
