''Pandanus conglomeratus'' 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 exclud ...

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 incl ...

, but possibly

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

Description

A short (4-5m), sparsely-branched tree. The sharp, pale green leaves are armed with large, white, erect spines. This species can be distinguished by its oblong fruit-heads, several of which appear together on a pendulous peduncle. It is the only species of

to have more than one fruit-head on the same stalk.

Distribution

It was endemic to

, where it was formerly common in the damper parts of the highlands. It was recently recorded from near Midlands (Riviere Eau Bleue), Fressanges and Beau-Bassin. However it now appears to be extinct.Vaughan, R.E. and Wiehe, P.O. 1953. ''Flore des Mascareignes, Genus Pandanus''. The Sugar Industry Research Institute, Mauritius, ORSTOM, Paris and RBG, Kew.

References

conglomeratus Endemic flora of Mauritius Extinct plants Taxa named by Isaac Bayley Balfour {{Pandanales-stub