Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Benstonea lauterbachii (K.Schum. & Warb. ex Warb.) Callm. & Buerki


Palm, pandan or cycad
Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
© W. T. Cooper
Fruit. © B. Gray
Fruit. © CSIRO
Fruit. © CSIRO
Habit. © CSIRO
Family

Callmander, M.W. et al (2012) Candollea 67(2): 335.

Common name

Lauterbach's Pandan; Pandan, Lauterbach's

Stem

Tree to ca. 15 m tall, trunk with scattered groups of spiny conical nodules (warty). Prop roots absent or few to ca. 100 cm long, slender, flexible and not supportive. Plants male or female.

Leaves

Leaves linear, arching, apex acute, margins shallowly undulate, adult to 1-3 m long x 5-7.5 cm diam. Leaf base clasping the stem. Spines on margins and on underside midrib except near base; on margins spines ascending, on midrib underside they are variously pointing towards base and towards tip.

Flowers

A terminal raceme or panicle. Male flowers: Inflorescence to 120 cm long. Flowers fragrant. Female flowers: Inflorescences of 7-15 segments (phalanges or multiple fused flowers). Individual flowers sessile, at mid-section hexagonal in cross-section, apex elongated into a spine-like style 5-10 mm long.

Fruit

Fruit a multiple fruit, orange and orange-yellow towards base, of 7-15 multiple fused fruit. Individual fruits when separated are cylindric-tapered, at mid-section are pentagonal-hexagonal in cross-section., 18-25 mm long x 5-8 mm wide with apex elongated into a spine-like style 5-10 mm long. Seed is ovoid, 8-15 mm long x 3-5 mm diam.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in CYP and with an outlying occurrence in NEQ at the Hull River near Tully (between Cairns and Townsville). Altitudinal range from near sea level to 45 m. Grows along rivers in rainforest, swamp forest, woodland and on mangrove edges. Also known from New Guinea.

Synonyms

Pandanus lauterbachii K.Schum. & Warb. ex Warb., Das Pflanzenreich 3: 81 (1900), Type: Deutsch Neuguinea (Lauterbach n. 863).

RFK Code
7012
Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved.