| any tropical Asian tree or shrub of the genus Pandanus, having a palmlike or branched stem, long, narrow, rigid, spirally arranged leaves and aerial roots, and bearing an edible fruit. |
pan·da·nus  (pān-dā'nəs, -dān'əs)  n. Any of numerous palmlike dioecious trees and shrubs of the genus Pandanus of the Old World tropics, having large prop roots and a crown of narrow spiny leaves that yield a fiber used in weaving mats and similar articles. Also called screw pine. [New Latin Pandanus, genus name, from Malay pandan, screw pine.] pan'da·na'ceous (pān'də-nā'shəs) adj. |
| screw pine n. See pandanus. |
screw pine
any of some 600 tropical species of Old World trees and shrubs of the screw pine family, Pandanaceae. Pandanus trees typically have slender palmlike stems and produce from their trunks and stems aerial prop roots that are often huge; these, together with their terminal crowns of swordlike leaves, give the plants a distinctive appearance.
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