''Pandanus incertus'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

in the family Pandanaceae, endemic to

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

Description

A small, low (2-3m) tree. The 11 cm-wide trunk is grey-red, and bears only a few stilt-roots near the base of the stem. The leaves are broad, reduplicate and taper off to the grooved tip. Some specimens can resemble the related species '' Pandanus spathulatus''. This species is most easily distinguished by its pale, 16 cm, rounded, club-like fruit-head. This is born on a bract-lined peduncle, and is regularly packed with 100-125 domed angular drupes, with deep brown cracks at their tips.

Habitat

It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

, and is critically rare in its highland habitat.Roskov Y., Abucay L., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., De Wever A., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds. (2018). ''Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life'', 20 December 2017. Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/col. Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-8858.

References

incertus Endemic flora of Mauritius {{Pandanales-stub