Pandanus tectorius

Pandanus Tectorius

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Pandanus tectorius

Pandanus tectorius is a species of Pandanus
Pandanus

Pandanus is a genus of monocots with about 600 known species. Plants vary in size from small shrubs less than 1 m tall, up to medium-sized trees 20 m tall, typically with a broad canopy and moderate growth rate....
(screwpine), occurring from near Port Macquarie in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is Australia's oldest and most populous States and territories of Australia, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria and south of Queensland....
to northern Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
and Indonesia

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
east through the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
to Hawaii

Hawaii

File:Pahoehoe and Aa flows at Hawaii.jpgThe State of Hawaii is a U.S. state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia....
(where it is known locally as the hala tree). Its exact native range is unknown due to extensive cultivation; it may be an early Polynesian

Polynesian culture

Polynesian culture refers to the indigenous peoples culture of the Polynesian languages-speaking peoples of Polynesia and the Polynesian outliers....
introduction to many of the more isolated Pacific islands on which it occurs.

Description
P.

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Encyclopedia

Pandanus tectorius is a species of Pandanus
Pandanus

Pandanus is a genus of monocots with about 600 known species. Plants vary in size from small shrubs less than 1 m tall, up to medium-sized trees 20 m tall, typically with a broad canopy and moderate growth rate....
(screwpine), occurring from near Port Macquarie in New South Wales
New South Wales

New South Wales is Australia's oldest and most populous States and territories of Australia, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria and south of Queensland....
to northern Queensland
Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
, Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
and Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
east through the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
to Hawaii
Hawaii

File:Pahoehoe and Aa flows at Hawaii.jpgThe State of Hawaii is a U.S. state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia....
(where it is known locally as the hala tree). Its exact native range is unknown due to extensive cultivation; it may be an early Polynesian
Polynesian culture

Polynesian culture refers to the indigenous peoples culture of the Polynesian languages-speaking peoples of Polynesia and the Polynesian outliers....
introduction to many of the more isolated Pacific islands on which it occurs.

Description

P. tectorius is a tree
TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
that to grows to tall. The single trunk
Trunk (botany)

In botany, trunk refers to the main structural member of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots....
is spiny and forks at a height of . It is supported by prop root
Aerial root

"Pneumatophore" redirects here. It is also a name for the air bladder of the Portuguese Man o' War.Aerial roots are roots above the ground....
s that firmly anchor the tree to the ground. Its leaves are usually long and wide with saw-like margins.

Flowers
P. tectorius is dioecious, with very different male and female flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s. Male flowers are small, fragrant, form clusters or raceme
Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate growth and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called Pedicel s — along the axis....
s, and short lived, lasting only a single day. Female flowers resemble pineapple
Pineapple

Pineapple is the common name for an edible tropical plant and also its fruit. It is native to the southern part of Brazil, and Paraguay. This herbaceous plant perennial plant grows to tall with 30 or more trough-shaped and pointed leaves long, surrounding a thick plant stem....
s.

Fruit
The screwpine tree's fruit
Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
is either ovoid
Oval

An oval is any curve resembling an egg or an ellipse but may also refer to:* A sporting arena of oval shape** a cricket field** an Australian rules football field...
, ellipsoid
Ellipsoid

An ellipsoid is a type of Quadric that is a higher dimensional analogue of an ellipse. The equation of a standard axis-aligned ellipsoid body in an xyz-Cartesian coordinate system is...
, subglobose or globose
Sphere

A sphere is a symmetrical geometrical object. In non-mathematical usage, the term is used to refer either to a round ball or to its two-dimensional surface....
with a diameter of and a length of . The fruit is made up of 38–200 wedge-like phalanges, which have an outer fibrous husk
Husk

Husk in botany is the outer shell or coating of a seed....
. Phalanges contain two seeds on average, with a maximum of eight reported. The phalanges are buoyant
Buoyancy

In physics, buoyancy is the upward force that keeps things afloat. The net upward buoyancy force is equal to the magnitude of the weight of fluid displaced by the body....
, and the seeds within them can remain viable for many months while being transported by ocean current
Ocean current

An ocean current is continuous, directed movement of ocean water. The currents are generated from the forces acting upon the water like the Earth's rotation, the wind, the temperature, salinity differences and the tide....
s.

Habitat
P. tectorius naturally grows in coast
Coast

The coast is defined as that part of the land adjoining or near the ocean or its saltwater arms. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the process of tides....
al regions, such as on mangrove
Mangrove

Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline water coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. The word is used in at least three senses: most broadly to refer to the habitat and entire plant assemblage or mangal, for which the terms mangrove swamp and mangrove forest are also used, to refer to all trees and...
margins and beach
Beach

File:MiamiSouthBeachPanoramaEdit.jpgA beach is a geology landform along the shoreline of a body of water. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of Rock , such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, pebbles, or cobble....
es, at elevations from sea level to . It requires of annual rainfall. Screwpine is well adapted to grow in the many soil
Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
types present on coasts, including quartz
Quartz

Quartz is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust . It is made up of a Crystal structure of silica tetrahedra. Quartz has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale and a density of 2.65 g/cm?....
sand
Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.As the term is used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 to 2 millimeters....
, coral sand
Coral sand

Coral sand is sand of particles originating in tropical and sub-tropical Marine environments from bioerosion of limestone skeletal material of marine organisms....
, and peat
Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation biological tissue. Peat forms in wetlands or peatlands, variously called bogs, Moorland, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests....
, as well as in limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
and basalt
Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually gray to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet....
. P. tectorius is salt
Halophyte

A halophyte is a plant that naturally grows where it is affected by salinity in the root area or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs, and seashores....
and wind tolerant and favors slightly acid
Acid

An acid is traditionally considered any chemical compound that, when dissolved in water, gives a solution with a hydrogen ion Activity greater than in pure water, i.e....
ic to basic
Base

Base or BASE may refer to:* Base meaning bottom, the lowest part of an object*...
soil (pH
Soil pH

The pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. An acid solution has a pH value less than 7. While a basic solution always has a pH larger than 7, an alkaline solution does not necessarily have a pH larger than 7....
of 6-10). It prefers to grow in full sunlight, but grows well with 30-50% shade.

Uses
The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked and is a major source of food in Micronesia
Micronesia

Micronesia , from the Greek language mikros and nesos , is a subregion of Oceania, comprising hundreds of small islands in the Pacific Ocean....
, especially in the atoll
Atoll

An atoll is an island of coral that encircles a lagoon partially or completely....
s. The fibrous nature of the fruit also serves as a natural dental floss
Dental floss

Dental floss is either a bundle of thin nylon filaments or a plastic ribbon used to remove food and dental plaque from teeth. The floss is gently inserted between the teeth and scraped along the teeth sides, especially close to the Gingiva....
. The tree's leaves are often used as flavoring for sweet dishes such as kaya jam, and are also said to have medicinal properties. Leaves were used by the Polynesians
Polynesians

The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that traditionally spoke Polynesian languages and inhabited Polynesia....
to make baskets, mats, outrigger canoe
Outrigger canoe

The outrigger canoe is a type of canoe featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull ....
sails
Canoe sailing

Canoe sailing refers to the practice of fitting a Polynesian outrigger or a Western canoe with sails.See also log canoe, a type of sailboat used in the Chesapeake Bay region....
, thatch
Thatching

Thatching is the craft of covering a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, Cyperaceae, Juncus and heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof....
roofs, and grass skirt
Grass skirt

A grass skirt is a traditional part of dress wear on tropical islands all over the world . This is referred to many kinds of dress wear. These are popular with Hula girls on Hawaii....
s.

Culture

The seal of Punahou School
Punahou School

Punahou School, once known as Oahu College, is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school located in Honolulu, Hawaii, City and County of Honolulu in the U.S....
in Honolulu, Hawaii
Hawaii

File:Pahoehoe and Aa flows at Hawaii.jpgThe State of Hawaii is a U.S. state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia....
features the hala tree, in part because lauhala
Lauhala

Lauhala is either the Hawaiian art of weaving the leaves of the hala tree , or the leaves so used, or is sometimes used to refer to the tree itself....
, the art of weaving with the leaves of that tree, is pivotal to the history of the island
History of Hawaii

The history of Hawaii includes phases of early Polynesian settlement, British arrival, Euro-American and Asian immigration, the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, a brief period of existing as a Republic, and admission to the United States as a territory and then a state.A woman was believed to have founded Hawaii...
, with everything from houses to pillows being made in this fashion.

Ecology
The stick insect
Phasmatidae

Phasmatidae is a family of stick insects in the order Phasmatodea, in the superfamily Anareolatae....
Megacrania batesii
Megacrania batesii

This blue to green colored stick insect only lives on the midribs of the leaves of the "screwpine" Pandanus tectorius. If disturbed during the day, it emits a milky substance with a smell resembling peppermint....
lives and feeds only on this species.

Gallery