Pandanus obeliscus

Pandanus obeliscus is a screwpine, or pandan endemic to Madagascar,[1] Its common name is vacoua en pyramide. It is up to sixty feet (18 meters) in height and up to three feet (0.91 meters) in diameter at breast height. By reason of its very thick primary growth it may be the most massive (heaviest) of all pandans.[2] P. obeliscus belongs to a section of the genus (acanthostyla) which are collectively called the "coniferoids" [3] which have large linear leaves on the main axis (trunk) which are called "crown megaphylls" and can be up to twelve feet (3.7 meters) long by six inches (15 centimeters) in width. As these age, they fall away and are replaced by hundreds of side shoots with very much smaller leaves - six inches (15 centimeters) long by only about one-half inch (about one cm) in width.[4] which are responsible for giving the tree its conifer-like appearance. The species was first described in 1808.[1] These side branches frequently divide pseudodichotomously. Some taxonomists regard P. obeliscus and P. pulcher to be conspecific.

Pandanus obeliscus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Pandanales
Family: Pandanaceae
Genus: Pandanus
Species:
P. obeliscus
Binomial name
Pandanus obeliscus

References
  1. "Pandanus obeliscus L." Kew Science – Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  2. <anonymous> (December 27, 1879). "<not recorded>". Gardener's Chronicle. 12 (2nd series) (<not stated>): 822.
  3. Stone, Benjamin C. (May–June 1970). "Morphological Studies in Pandanaceae sect. Acanthostyla". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 97 (3): 144–149 (figure 2). Includes illustrations of this and related species
  4. Gardener's Chronicle loc. cit.
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