Pandanus fascicularis Lam. (PANDANACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Kedige, Mundige, Mundovu.
Malayalam: Kaitha.
Tamil: Tazhai.
Telugu: Mogali.
Description: These extensively branched shrubs or small trees feature numerous, thick prop roots. The leaves are ensiform, reaching up to 250 x 8 cm, caudate-acuminate, and have prickly margins and midrib, displaying a glossy green appearance. Male inflorescence spicate, pedunculate, fragrant. Bracts linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, yellowish, lower ones flagelliferous. Spikes 5-11, up to 10 cm long. Stamens many, racemose on stamenophores; anthers cuspidate. Female inflorescence solitary, terminal, pedunculate, globose or ellipsoid. Bracts whitish yellow, lower ones leaf-like. Carpels confluent in groups (phalanges) of 5-15; stigma U- or V- shaped. Fruit a syncarp, up to 25 cm long, orange or reddish; phalanges turbinate, up to 8 x 4.5 cm.
Flowering & Fruiting: August – October.
Distribution: India: Sundarbans, Peninsular India, especially near the coast and Andaman Islands. Sri Lanka, Myanmar.
Uses: The leaves are used for mat- and umbrella- making and their fibres for cordage and fishing lines. The roots are used in basket and brush making. Often cultivated as a hedge plant and also for its fragrant inflorescence. Root and flowers are used in rheumatism, headache, anorexia, indigestion, constipation, polyuria, eye diseases and leprosy; leaf used in leprosy, syphilis, smallpox, scabies, leucoderma, diseases of the heart and brain; anthers used in earache, diseases of the blood; aromatic oil from bract stimulant, antispasmodic and used in rheumatism.