Species
+

Pandanus utilis Bory

Common Screwpine, Droa, screw palm

Climate known 66 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Pandanus utilis, commonly known as common screwpine or pimento thatch, is a species of monocot in the genus Pandanus, native to the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Réunion, and naturalised in Madagascar, the Seychelles, and elsewhere.

Text from Wikipedia, “Pandanus utilis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Pandanus

Pandanus is a genus of monocots with about 578 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. Common names include pandan, screw palm and screw pine. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Pandanus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Pandanaceae
Described by
Bory
Native to
Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues
Wild records
415 in range· 368 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2228mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 462 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–46DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (December to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 2228 mm a year, wettest February at 462 mm, driest October at 67 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Hasskarlia globosa (Hassk.) Walp.; Marquartia globosa Hassk.; Pandanus candelabrum Hook., 1857; Pandanus distichus Anon.; Pandanus elegantissimus J.J.Veitch and 28 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (December to April at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1560 mm of 2228 mm) falls in December to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.9 °C against a yearly mean of 22.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to October.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2228 mm a year, wettest February at 462 mm, driest October at 67 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2228 mm a year at the habitat, 1560 mm of it December to April. Wettest month February at 462 mm, driest October at 67 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1355 mm to 4487 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 18.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 18.5 °C, the absolute minimum 17.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.6 °C in August (across the envelope cells 14.2 °C to 20.0 °C), warmest day 27.0 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Aug to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 19 °C in Aug to 24 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 2228 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 98 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°28.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 25–46RH 63–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 98 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–2827 / 24–2827 / 24–2826 / 23–2724 / 21–2623 / 19–2422 / 18–2322 / 19–2322 / 19–2423 / 20–2525 / 22–2626 / 23–27
Night °C24 / 20–2524 / 21–2524 / 20–2523 / 19–2421 / 17–2320 / 15–2119 / 14–2019 / 14–2019 / 15–2020 / 16–2121 / 17–2323 / 19–24
Rain mm354 / 212–606462 / 264–789320 / 190–618219 / 147–471140 / 88–33496 / 57–250107 / 60–26490 / 54–21681 / 50–18567 / 40–16387 / 55–200205 / 133–368
DLI44 / 42–4541 / 39–4238 / 37–3933 / 31–3428 / 26–2925 / 23–2726 / 24–2730 / 29–3237 / 36–3943 / 42–4446 / 45–4746 / 44–47
RH %67 / 62–7367 / 63–7566 / 62–7466 / 61–7365 / 59–7063 / 58–6863 / 58–6863 / 57–6863 / 58–6863 / 59–6964 / 59–6966 / 61–71

Each figure is the median across the 98 grid cells holding the 404 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2209:4748 (-20.475, 57.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 98 distinct grid cells holding the 404 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2209:4748 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -20.50_57.500, lapse-corrected +139 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 222 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues· introduced: Ascension, Comoros, Seychelles, Bermuda, Cuba, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-21.111, 55.7 · in the densest population, 364 records (88% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 415 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 368 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 242 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 11 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 415 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pandanus utilisPandanus utilisPandanus utilisPandanus utilisPandanus utilisPandanus utilisPandanus utilisPandanus utilis

Photographs: (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Denis Bastianelli, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Diana Studer, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Pandanus utilis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Fungal Planet description sheets: 371–399
P.W. Crous, Michael J. Wingfield, Johannes J. Le Roux, David M. Richardson (2015) · Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi
Pandalisines A and B, novel indolizidine alkaloids from the leaves of Pandanus utilis
Yuan‐Bin Cheng, Yi‐Hong Tsai, I‐Wen Lo, Chen-Chang Haung (2015) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Production of low cost paper from Pandanus utilis fibres as a substitution to wood
Bibi Nausheen Jaffur, Pratima Jeetah (2019) · Sustainable Environment Research
Optimization of oviposition trap settings to monitor populations of Aedes mosquitoes, vectors of arboviruses in La Reunion
Ronan Brouazin, Iris Claudel, Renaud Lancelot, Guillaume Dupuy (2022) · Scientific Reports
Tree Age, Leaf Maturity and Exposure to Sunlight Influence Tensile Strength of Fibres in Pandanus Utilis
Barisoa Harijaona Rafidison, Hareenanden Ramasawmy, Jaykumar Chummun, F. B. Vincent Florens (2018) · Journal of Natural Fibers
Characterization of the tensile strength of chemically treated Pandanus utilis (screwpine) fibres for potential application as reinforcement in epoxy composite
Hareenanden Ramasawmy, Jaykumar Chummun, A. B. Bhurtun (2017) · International Journal of Plastics Technology
Investigation into the use of alkali treated screwpine (Pandanus Utilis) fibres as reinforcement in epoxy matrix
Ashwin Deesoruth, Hareenanden Ramasawmy, Jaykumar Chummun (2014) · International Journal of Plastics Technology
Constituents of the Leaves of Pandanus Utilis
I‐Wen Lo, Yuan‐Bin Cheng, Chen-Chang Haung, Tsong‐Long Hwang (2016) · Natural Product Communications
Development of an effective non-woven fibre mat via wet-laid process for structural composite reinforcement applications
Barisoa Harijaona Rafidison, Hareenanden Ramasawmy, Jaykumar Chummun, F. B. Vincent Florens (2026) · Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites
An investigation on the use of sodium hydroxide treated Pandanus utilis fibres in compression moulded polyester composite
Laurent L', N.A. Entêté, Hareenanden Ramasawmy (2022) · International Journal of Student Project Reporting

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Pandanus 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.