Pandanus sphaeroides explained

Pandanus sphaeroides is a species of plant in the family Pandanaceae, endemic to Mauritius.

Description

A very variable species depending on habitat.It is usually a low (5-7m), slender, branched tree. The leaves are stiff, ascending, yellow-green and have white or brown leaf spines on the margins and on the apical half of the leaf midrib. Some older leaves can bend and droop down though. The leaves are also reduplicate and have a blunt tip.

It has numerous stilt-roots, along the trunk and also along the branches, even as far as the tips.

This species is most easily distinguished by its fruit-head, which has pale blue-green drupes that each have a corky tip.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Habitat

It is endemic to Mauritius, and still common in some of the highland wetlands and thickets.^[4]

Notes and References

1. Vaughan RE, Wiehe PO (1953) The genus Pandanus in the Mascarene Islands. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany 55(356): 1-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.1953.tb00001.x.
2. Strahm, W.A. 1993. The conservation and restoration of the flora of Mauritius and Rodrigues. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis (2 vols.), Reading University, UK.
3. Vaughan, R.E. and Wiehe, P.O. 1953. Flore des Mascareignes, Genus Pandanus. The Sugar Industry Research Institute, Mauritius, ORSTOM, Paris and RBG, Kew.
4. Roskov Y., Abucay L., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., De Wever A., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds. (2018). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 20 December 2017. Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/col. Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-8858.