Pandanus amaryllifolius, or pandan plant or screwpine, is a tropical evergreen plant native to the Philippines and Indonesia.
The plant has been naturalized elsewhere throughout the world, and is now grown commercially in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, and Sri Lanka.
As it is grown for ornamental use in landscaping, Pandanus amaryllifolius has been approaching acceptance in our landscapes.
If you are interested in adding this plant to your garden, this grower’s guide will assist you with providing the best possible care for the plant.
About the Plant
A Pandan plant has an average height of 30 to 50 feet and the leaf length can be between 6 to 10 feet.
The leaves are simple leaves that can spiral or alternate. The leaf shape is oblong-lanceolate to narrow elliptical with serrated margins.
The leaf surface is glossy green, while the undersides are pale green. The leaf stalk is little and stout (1 to 2 inches long).
A Pandan plant is monoecious which means it has both male and female plants on the same plant.
The flowers are small, white, and grow in multiple (3 to 5) clusters surrounded by large green bracts.
The flowers mature into reddish-brown fruits that are 1 to 2 inches in diameter.
The fruit’s color is reddish-brown such fruit appears to be an elongated cone rather than a fruit. The fruit can be eaten raw or as marmalade.
USDA Zone
Pandan plant loves humid climates, they can handle temperatures between 68 and 86°F (20 and 30°C).
They prefer shaded areas and will not withstand any exposure to direct sunlight or wind. Pandan plants are also subject to frost damage.
Because the pandan plant requires a tropical climate, the best USDA zones are 10 and 11.
This is mostly along the coast from South Carolina to Miami, south of San Antonio, Texas, and a little bit of the west coast of the United States from Arizona to California.
Is Pandan Plant Poisonous
Before you’ve added a plant to your home (or even thought about it), it’s a good question to consider, especially if you live with children (or pets), since no one wants to go home and drop a toxic item in their home.
Fortunately – The pandan plant is not poisonous, or toxic, and therefore, is generally safe to add to your home.
The Many Uses of the Pandan Plant
Believe it or not, the pandan plant has a few uses that are both tasty and medicinal.
Uses in Food
Pandan tastes something like vanilla and licorice mixed together. The leaves are commonly used to flavour sweet dishes, drinks, and even savoury dishes.
The fruits that sometimes grow (that’s right, some turn into a fruit) are edible too, and have a sour taste to them.
When the pandan is boiled, it also gives off wonderful bright green dye that can colour desserts, paper, and even hair!
Medicinal Uses
The pandan plant has many pleasant uses – a couple of medicinal purposes that make it a nice addition to your garden.
A pandan plant is a natural diuretic and can be used to help create urinary tract infections.
The leaves also have a cooling effect and can be used to help relieve a heat stroke, sunburns and inflammation.
The pandan plant has been shown effective against a range of bugs including:
- mosquitos
- ants
- spiders
The leaves emit a strong odor that will deter these bugs.
You can use the pandan leaves to make a natural repellent for bugs as well. Just crush the leaves and rub them on your skin to repel the bugs.
The pandan plants can also be used as a natural dye. The leaves turn into a green dye that can color fabrics and other materials.
Lifestyle Uses
In places where pandan originates, like thePhillippines and Indonesia, they use the leaves of the pandan plant to use as fiber products.
They use the leaves to make clothes, hats, baskets, bags and shelters.
They weave them together like palm fronds to make a strong, tightly bound material.
Growing a Pandan Plant
Pandan plants can be purchased in greenhouses, grown from seed, or grown by using leaf cuttings.
How to Grow a Pandan Plant from Seed
For seed propagation, you have to soak the seeds for 24 hours in water before planting them in a propagating soil medium.
You need to keep the soil wet, don’t let it dry out until the seeds germinate.
It can take two to three months for this stage.
How to Grow a Pandan Plant from a Cutting
Healthy juveniles clump up.
It’s easy to identify new juvenile offshoots because it will have new stems with aerial roots sticking out of them that are coming out of the main plant or side of the plant.
All you have to do is pull it off with your hands to separate the juvenile offshoot from the plant!
Don’t cut it, or you’ll probably be cutting the aerial roots off of it. To prep the juvenile offshoot, just pull off the bottom leaves so new roots have space to grow.
If you just pulled off a juvenile offshoot with roots already developed, just simply plant the roots down deep in a pot like it has always been there, keep the soil moist, and keep it in partial shade for a couple of days.
After a week, slowly acclimate it to direct sun but take your time. You want the roots to acclimate more than you want to rush it into full sun.
From Experience – If you have a juvenile offshoot with no roots, you can still put the offshoot in water until roots form, and then you can follow the steps above like the offshoot had roots the whole time.
Caring for Pandan
Once you access a pandan plant, it is up to you to care for and grow it into a successful plant!
Pandan is a pretty hardy plant that is easy to care for, especially when keeping these care points in mind.
Soil
Good soil mix for growing pandan is 3 parts sandy loam, 2 parts peat moss, and 1 part perlite or coarse sand.
This mix is the right mix as it will keep pandan plants well draining with some moisture retention.
As crazy as this sounds, the perlite will retain water so there’s water available to the plants, but the roots won’t sit in water from the perlite since it keeps draining down into the soil.
Water
Soil should always be kept damp, not soggy. You could be watering every day, or even 2 x day when it’s really hot.
During the hot spring and summer you can also spray the leaves to help keep the plant hydrated.
When the weather cools – You should be able to stop misting the leaves completely, and just observe the moisture level in the soil and water accordingly.
Sunlight
Pandan plants enjoy basking in sunlight, but they do not enjoy sitting in direct sunlight.
If you plant your pandan directly in the ground to grow in the tropical south, find a location that receives very little access in direct sunlight.
Near a home, where it will cast some shade on the garden, or under a pergola or tree are great places to plant them.
If you plant in a pot you will have the option to move your plant outside of direct sunlight if you find you’ve placed it in the incorrect spot.
To take it a step further, and you live anywhere in in the U.S. that is not USDA zones 10 or 11, you can bring your plant inside.
Temperature and Humidity
Pandan plants like it on the warm side and prefer a humid environment.
If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with some relatively cool winters, then you should bring your plant inside, or at least put it in a garage for winter.
If you don’t have access to a greenhouse, or are unable to bring the plant inside for any reason, then try to at least place it somewhere sheltered from the wind and the rain.
Fertilizer
Pandan plants are real nutrient hogs.
These plants are hungry, and they need regular feedings of compost or natural fertilizers, such as:
- chicken manure
- sheep manure
- fish emulsion
- or seaweed emulsion
Use fertilizer once every 2 or 3 weeks during the spring, summer, and fall. Stop using fertilizer during the winter months completely.
Pandan stop growing when the weather cools in the fall, so whatever fertilizer you use after that will not be used by the plants.
Container Size
Pandan plants can grow great in containers, as long as you have the right size.
The pot for a pandan plant should be at least 20L. The roots will grow down and out to support the plant.
If you want the pandan plant to get bigger, you should repot the plant in a bigger pot every two years.
You can take offshoots in to pots for propagation to get more plants!
To do this:
- Select a healthy plant with 3 or more offshoots.
- By hand, pull off each offshoot from the plant, ensuring each offshoot has at least 2 leaves.
- Fill a pot with a well-draining potting mix and soak it with water.
- Use your finger to make a small hole in the mix and insert the bottom of the offshoot.
- Gently pack the mix around the offshoot and water again. Place the pot in a brightly lit, warm location and keep the mix moist, not wet.
Solving Common Problems in Pandan Plant
Pandan plants experience two common issues, and they both have to do with the waterings.
Over-Watering
The first problem is too much water for your pandan plant. Once you see leaves start to go yellow or the stem is softening then you have likely over watered your plant.
Over watering your plant means that the roots are literally rotting, and the plant can no longer pick up nutrients in the soil.
Once there are no nutrients, or even water for the roots to observe, the plant will begin to die and photosynthesis will slow down.
These leaves yellow because of the lack of chlorophyll in the leaves.
Under-Watering
The opposite of this is under-watering the plant.
When you see the tips or edges of the leaves start to turn brown, think about how frequently you are watering your plant.
It’s possible you are either not watering your plant enough, or not frequently enough.
If you are watering your plant quite a bit on a frequent cycle, the soil could have become hydrophobic meaning, it can’t retain any water and is repelling water.
If so, you will need to rehydrate the soil.
You would do this by adding a wetting agent to the top of the soil, which will reduce the surface tensions that are keeping the water from penetrating the soil. This will allow the water to seep through instead of bypassing the soil and running down the sides of the pot out of the drainage hole.
If your plant is outside, you can also till organic matter back into the soil.
The organic matter adds nutrients back to the soil, and helps aerate the soil.
This will cause the spots between the soil particles to go back to its original state, which allows for the water to be on fleet back to the roots.
Pests
Pest tussles aren’t a thing with the pandan plant, unlike other plants. You see, the leaves of the pandan plant are insect repellents. As a matter of fact, pandan leaves are sold for other uses in homes. They are sold specifically to repel cockroaches and mosquitos!
Did you know? – it’s possible you will have spider mites on your plant. If so, you can easily remove them. Just wipe off the delicate webs with a damp paper towel and spray an insecticidal soap to eliminate any remaining bugs or eggs.
You can make insecticidal soap at home by mixing 1 cup of canola oil and a couple drops of dish soap.
Then, we add this mixture into a spray bottle and thoroughly spray the underside of the affected leaves.
Final Thoughts
The Pandan plant is a beautiful plant for the garden!
The Pandan plant can be used as a border plant, or to landscape mass varieties and as ground cover. It is also suited for container gardening.
To grow a pandan plant, keep the plant in a sunny to semi-shaded place and water regularly, maintaining it a moist soil condition but not muddy.
Feed the pandan plant with a balanced fertiliser every two weeks, and repot the pandan plant every two years. If given the right care, the pandan plant will flourish and allow you to enjoy it for many years.