香露兜 xiang lu dou

Pandanus latifolius Hasskarl (1842), not Perrot (1825); P. odorus Ridley.

Herbs evergreen. Stems branched; aerial roots present. Sucker shoots of small growth phase with stems slender, 1-1.6 m × 2-5 cm, decumbent and ascending; leaves 25-75 × 2-5 cm, somewhat glaucous abaxially, keeled abaxially but unarmed, margin entire except at apex, there with very few minute prickles less than 1 mm, apex with distinct twin lateral pleats; flowers unknown, probably never produced in small growth phase. Large growth phase with stems 2-4.5 m × ca. 15 cm, erect, not or only sparsely branched; leaves broadly linear, to 150-220 × 7-9 cm, glaucous abaxially, keeled abaxially and with twin lateral pleats with prickles same as in small growth phase, apex acute; female inflorescence unknown; male inflorescence (evidently exceedingly rare) probably pendent, to 60 cm; spathes ca. 90 cm; spikes cylindric, to 35 cm or more, upper ones much shorter, 9-10 × ca. 2 cm, of numerous crowded, flat staminal phalanges 1.5-2.5 mm wide; stamens mostly 3-6 per phalange; filaments 0.5-1.5 × 0.4-0.6 mm; anthers oblong, ca. 2.5 × 0.5 mm, apex bluntly convex, without or with a barely discernible apiculum.

Cultivated. Hainan (Danxian, Xinglong) [Indonesia; cultivated in Indonesia (West Papua), Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam].

The small growth phase, "perpetuated by continual harvesting of its leaves" (Stone, Econ. Bot. 32: 287. 1978), is cultivated for the musky aromatic leaves used in cooking, e.g., for scenting rice.

Warburg (in Engler, Pflanzenr. 3(IV. 9): 87. 1900) and Backer and Bakhuizen van den Brink (Fl. Java 3: 205. 1968) noted that this species is known only from sterile (vegetative) specimens. A male flowering collection from a "large growth phase" in Ternate, North Moluku, Indonesia, was later described by Stone (loc. cit.: 287). The description denoting two growth phases is from Stone (loc. cit.: 287).