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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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The popular name for plants of the genus Pandanus, which are shrubs or trees of peculiar habit, having a main stem and a few branches at the ends of which is a tuft of long, stiff, narrow leaves closely arranged in three strongly twisted lines. The stem forms stout roots, which grow obliquely downwards to the soil, and owing to the decay of the lower part of the stem the plant is often supported merely by these strong prop-like roots. The ripe fruits are borne in often very large spherical or cylindrical heads, which are often extremely hard. The genus is the principal one of the family Pandanaceae, a small order of Monocotyledons, which is widely distributed through the tropics of the Old World, especially in the islands of the Malay Archipelago and of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.