Pandanaceae R.Br.

Pandanaceae, H.J. Beentje. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1993

Morphology General Habit

Trees or shrubs, less often lianas or epiphytic shrubs, often with stilt-roots or aerial roots from the lower trunk, and sometimes from the branches; branches woody, with annular leaf-scars

Morphology Leaves

Leaves spirally arranged in 3 or 2 rows (the latter appearing as 4 rows), crowded towards the apices of the branches, simple, lanceolate or linear, sheathing at the base, coriaceous, keeled and often 3-plicate, usually with small prickles on the midrib beneath, on the margins, and sometimes on the distal ventral pleats as well

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers unisexual, crowded in branched or unbranched spadices (panicles in Sararanga); inflorescences terminal or terminating lateral shoots, enclosed at first by spathaceous and often coloured bracts Female flowers with 1-several ovaries, lacking perianth parts, sometimes with staminodia; ovary 1-locular, free or confluent with adjacent ovaries into bundles, but always with separate stigmas corresponding with the number of locules; style absent or vestigial; stigma appressed or erect, lined with glandular hairs hardening at maturity, various in form but often rounded-cordate, V- or U-shaped, horseshoe-shaped or kidney-shaped, with a basal groove corresponding in position to the location of the placenta, i.e. directly above it; staminodes, if present, hypogynous and ± adnate to the ovary (or compound ovary) wall; ovules anatropous, solitary (in >i>Pandanus) or many (in >i>Freycinetia), parietal Male flowers: perianth absent or vestigial; stamens few-numerous, in corymbs or umbels; filaments free or connate; anthers erect, basifixed, 2-thecous, opening lengthwise by slits; ovary vestigial or absent

sex Male

Male flowers: perianth absent or vestigial; stamens few-numerous, in corymbs or umbels; filaments free or connate; anthers erect, basifixed, 2-thecous, opening lengthwise by slits; ovary vestigial or absent

sex Female

Female flowers with 1-several ovaries, lacking perianth parts, sometimes with staminodia; ovary 1-locular, free or confluent with adjacent ovaries into bundles, but always with separate stigmas corresponding with the number of locules; style absent or vestigial; stigma appressed or erect, lined with glandular hairs hardening at maturity, various in form but often rounded-cordate, V- or U-shaped, horseshoe-shaped or kidney-shaped, with a basal groove corresponding in position to the location of the placenta, i.e. directly above it; staminodes, if present, hypogynous and ± adnate to the ovary (or compound ovary) wall; ovules anatropous, solitary (in >i>Pandanus) or many (in >i>Freycinetia), parietal

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits Infructescences

Cephalia (fruiting heads) globose to oblong, solitary or in a spike, composed of ripened fruits—either drupes or clusters of partly fused drupes (phalanges) in >i>Pandanus, or berries (in >i>Freycinetia); pericarp thin, coriaceous to fleshy or firm; mesocarp fibrous, with spongy pith, fleshy (in >i>Pandanus) or gelatinous-fleshy (in >i>Freycinetia); endocarp fibrous and bony (in >i>Pandanus) to thin and lignified (>i>Sararanga) to membranous (>i>Freycinetia), enclosing the locule(s) in an integral structure; all or only some — but at least the interior ones—locules fertile

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds free (>i>Freycinetia, Sararanga) or inseparable from the endocarp (>i>Pandanus); testa membranous and delicate; endosperm white, homogeneous; embryo sub-basal