Screw Pine

Pandanus spiralis is a small tree in the Pandanaceae family, native to northern Australia, and called pandanus, spring pandanus, screw palm or screw pine, although it is neither a palm nor a pine. It grows up to several metres tall with a slender, often clumping trunk, and its spiral leaves, with or without sharp spines on the margins, crowd towards the tips. It occurs in northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and the extreme north of Western Australia, in savannah woodland and poorly drained ground beside creeks and rivers. The leaves are woven into neckbands, armbands, baskets, mats, fish traps and shelters, and the fibre is stripped into string for dillybags. The trunks are used to build rafts. Medicinal uses include as an antiseptic and analgesic and for dysentery and diarrhoea, and the white stem of the leaf is pounded to make an anaesthetic for tooth pain. The leaf bases and the seeds are eaten, and the fully ripe fruit are used ceremonially because of their scent.