november 2021

In this autumn edition, Secret Indochina returns to Vietnam’s south-central coastline and one of its wonderful oddities: the pandanus.

The pandanus (Pandanales order, Pandanaceae family) is a tree-plant or shrub, similar to a palm tree in appearance. It is also known as baquois, pandan, screw-palm, screw-pine, and breadfruit. The genus pandanus contains about 700 species. Pandanus is characteristic of the bays and coasts of the Asia-Pacific area, Oceania, and the islands off Africa. It is especially fond of islands and barren atolls, while some species have adapted to maritime mountains and associated forests. In Vietnam, pandanus is found mainly along the rocky coasts of the south-central provinces. It can also be found in Cambodia, especially on the island of Koh Kong.

The pandanus likes the foothills of sea dunes, beach heights, or the bottoms of creeks where it can better withstand typhoons, the scorching winds of the dry season, and the salt spray. The smallest ones measure one meter, the tallest over 20 meters. They are supported by pyramidal stilt-like roots that support the fruits and the main trunk and anchor the plant in the sand or the often-unstable coastal soil. According to the conditions, the branches are tentacular and intertwined. At the top, the pandanus divides into several crowns of thorny leaves that can reach up to two meters; the trunk is hollow and, depending on the species, smooth, marbled, or with a series of hairy rings.

Its fruits, assembled in heavy globular clusters, have prismatic sections, and change color from greenish, orange, then reddish during the one-year maturation process. Eventually, the seeds break off and spread, mainly by floating along streams, rivers, and bays, from bay to bay or out to sea and from island to island. They are enjoyed by bats, birds, elephants, rhinos, crabs and some cretaceans.

Humans also make use of the pandanus. Among the aboriginal populations of the South Pacific archipelagos, notably the Kabi Kabi, the pandanus is a world tree. Its uses are varied, according to Dr. Ray Kerkhove’s work The Pandanus: Historical Occurrence and Aboriginal Uses. The pandanus is used as a chew rope, the roots macerated in a mixture of honey, dead bees, larvae, and dead or rotting wood, then chewed and sucked as “a contemplative occupation prized by the ancients.” Pandanus wine is made from distilled fruit mixed with honey. The plant’s stems are fibrous and rich in water; when chewed, they help rehydrate. A grove of pandanus trees (pandanaies) can indicate the presence of water nearby. The roots form a sieve-like filter purifying the water, which is itself sucked up through long tubes. The flowers are used as ointment and hair decoration. The leaves and braided fibers are used to create dresses, ornaments, necklaces, headdresses, baskets, mats, hoods, trays, fans, and ropes. Women use the highly fragrant pandanus flower as an intimate invitation to love or as part of a body ointment. Roofs are made of pandanus leaves, sometimes in parallel logs as drainage. Its seeds and wood are used as projectiles to train novices in warfare. Pandanus receptacles are used to hold weapons known as fire sticks. Its wood is used for daily fire or for ritual ceremonies (the corroboree), and the embers are used to cook food in pandanus leaf wrappers. The trunks, “swimming logs,” are used as floats to navigate the coast, sometimes from island to island.

The pandanus is the subject of various myths and legends. In western annals, one of the first mentions of the pandanus is from the Greek author Ctesias, a physician trained at the Cnidus medical school. Around 398 BC, Ctesias was a captive at the Persian court of Artaxerxes II and brought back two botanical works: the Persica and the Indica. According to him, the pandanus is the exclusive property of the “king of the Indians, it is found only in the royal gardens, only the king can get this product, as well as the members of his family.” Ctesias mentions a rose-scented tree, probably the Pandanus odoratissimus, from which the Indians obtain essential oil from “its fragrant flowers.” Suzanne Amigues notes in her work The Indian Flora of Ctesias: a Historical Document that “the exotic aroma filled the air with the mysterious penetrating scent of this extraordinary flower. Its first olfactory impact is that of an intense sharpness. It is penetrating and capable of spreading to an amazing degree.”

In peninsular Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Thailand, pandanus leaves are used to make mats. They are cut into thin strips, sorted, then woven and colored. The leaves are occasionally used to make bags and veils. In Cambodia, the pandanus is called a “ramcek,” and its leaves are used to make mats or attach roofing elements of houses to the rafters; its flowers have a strong aroma and perfume the linen. The Ratanakiri Bru (a proto-Indochinese group in the Cambodian highlands) use it to make mats and crossbow bolts.

The leaves of the Pandanus amaryllifolius variety, known as “Asian vanilla,” are appreciated as a bouquet-garni to flavor stews, curries, and rice pilaf or as an extract to flavor cakes. Finely chopped, the leaves become fragrant confetti, used in various ceremonies. The leaves are occasionally used to decorate hair, and in India an extract (Kevada) is distilled from them. The Vietnamese prepare “ban-duc,” a pandanus-flavored confection with coconut milk. The British chef and food writer Nigella Lawson praises the merits of pandanus and notes that it will be the object of future international attention. In 1892, Paul Gauguin also celebrated pandanus by placing it in one of his paintings (I raro te Oviri - Under the Pandanus).

Pandanus fruits are renowned in traditional medicine as treatment for headaches, rheumatism, epilepsy, wounds, boils, scabies, ulcers, colic, hemorrhoids, hepatitis, smallpox, liver cirrhosis, diabetes, leprosy, kidney stones, syphilis, and cancer, as well as an antioxidant and aphrodisiac.

In Vietnam, pandanus is found sporadically in some northern regions and especially in isolated coastal sites in the provinces of Khan Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan. Via a Secret Indochina module, it is possible to admire specimens in the vicinity of the Cape Mui Yen, a rare and almost moving encounter with this emblematic species of south-central Vietnam’s admirable rocky coastline

© Illustration credit: Rachel Newling