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Screw-Pine

Pandanus utilis

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Zone 10

Screw-Pine is not a pine, but a tropical tree. Best used as a free-standing specimen with plenty of room, Pandanus utilis grows to 25 feet but also grows as wide. Its habit is to branch in tiers with its top in a pyramid shape

Many of the species are native to our favorite source for special plants, Madagascar, and New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.  Nature must love this look because there are 650+ other species of Pandanus besides Pandanus utilis

Here is one very cool New Guinea Pandanus

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Not a "pine" and not a woody tree, Pandanus is more closely related to palms, grasses and some orchids

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The roots are significant with many brace roots

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increasing in number & size & width over time

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You may have seen the screwipine's fruit/nut in elaborate floral arrangements

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Also the leaves are used in arrangements used for their tropical look and long, pointed affects.  We saw this  variegated Screw Pine at Fairchild Tropical Gardens

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What you probably have never seen is the inflorescence of the Screw Pine.  The nuts are not the seeds.  The nuts open into a cascade of pollen rich fiber.  First here's the tree

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Here are some pictures of Screw-Pine in bloom:

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This tree wants full sun, is not fussy for soil content and is not salt tolerant.  Keep soil on the moist side and feed well, often

There are three main negatives to using screw-pine in a landscape

One, it's adult size of 25x25 can easily take over a home landscape. Even in commercial settings, the screw-pine must be planted 15 or more feet from any pedestrian walk, building or road

Second, the leaves shed actively so they are a nuisance to collect off lawns

Third, they seed easily, even into lawn grass, so new screw-pines will appear by the hundreds from the soil after flowering and need to be removed or killed

Otherwise, Screw-Pine looks great in proper settings

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The one big negative is that Lethal Yellowing (the same disease that has killed so many coconut and other palm trees in Florida) also attacks and kills the Screw-Pine