Pandanus furcatus

Pandanus furcatus (common name Pandan Atono) Roxb., also known as korr, pandan or Himalayan/Nepal screw pine (named for the screw-like arrangement of its leaves), is native to the Sikkim Himalaya of Northeast India, Bhutan and Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia and West Africa, and occurs on moist and shady slopes of ravines between 300 and 1500 m. As might be expected it is cold-resistant and able to tolerate occasional light frost, slowly growing to a tall branched tree, about 17 m at maturity, and perched on stilt-like aerial roots. The crown is made up of linear leaves 5 m long, pale-green, with finely toothed margins, rarely up to 6 m long (exceeded in the genus only by Pandanus laxespicatus). The leathery flower spathes are golden-yellow, the lowermost are largest and about 1m in length. These give rise to cone-like fruit, 15–25 cm long, that are bright orange to red when mature and consist of numerous 5-6 angled drupes; they are edible and sweet-tasting.

This species was first described by William Roxburgh in 1814 in Hortus Bengalensis, from a specimen growing in the East India Company's Botanical Garden at Calcutta. Some two centuries later it has become a popular plant in cold climate gardens, though it is also cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics. The tree from which the colour plate was made by Matilda Smith, was acquired in 1888 by Kew from a Ghent nurseryman, who believed it to have originated from Madagascar. Besides the Himalayan region, the species also occurs naturally in China in Guangxi, Xizang and Yunnan, also in Myanmar and in Java, Sumatra and Malaysia.