Pandanus utilis Bory
Common Screwpine, Droa, screw palm
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.
At a glance
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.
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.
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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 27 / 24–28 | 27 / 24–28 | 27 / 24–28 | 26 / 23–27 | 24 / 21–26 | 23 / 19–24 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 19–23 | 22 / 19–24 | 23 / 20–25 | 25 / 22–26 | 26 / 23–27 |
| Night °C | 24 / 20–25 | 24 / 21–25 | 24 / 20–25 | 23 / 19–24 | 21 / 17–23 | 20 / 15–21 | 19 / 14–20 | 19 / 14–20 | 19 / 15–20 | 20 / 16–21 | 21 / 17–23 | 23 / 19–24 |
| Rain mm | 354 / 212–606 | 462 / 264–789 | 320 / 190–618 | 219 / 147–471 | 140 / 88–334 | 96 / 57–250 | 107 / 60–264 | 90 / 54–216 | 81 / 50–185 | 67 / 40–163 | 87 / 55–200 | 205 / 133–368 |
| DLI | 44 / 42–45 | 41 / 39–42 | 38 / 37–39 | 33 / 31–34 | 28 / 26–29 | 25 / 23–27 | 26 / 24–27 | 30 / 29–32 | 37 / 36–39 | 43 / 42–44 | 46 / 45–47 | 46 / 44–47 |
| RH % | 67 / 62–73 | 67 / 63–75 | 66 / 62–74 | 66 / 61–73 | 65 / 59–70 | 63 / 58–68 | 63 / 58–68 | 63 / 57–68 | 63 / 58–68 | 63 / 59–69 | 64 / 59–69 | 66 / 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
Photographs
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.
Related
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.
Araucaria columnaris Cook Island Pine
Spathoglottis unguiculata Orchidaceae
Breynia disticha Ice Cream Bush
Cyphostemma mappia Vitaceae
Hyophorbe lagenicaulis Bottle Palm
Nepenthes madagascariensis NepenthaceaeOther 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery 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.








