Pandanus conoideus Lam.

국표에 없다.

Pandanus conoideus is a plant in the Pandanus family from New Guinea. Its fruit is eaten in Papua New Guinea and Papua, Indonesia. The fruit has several names: marata, marita in Papua New Guinea local language, kuansu in Dani of Wamena or buah merah ("red fruit") in common Indonesian. The fruit is typically prepared by splitting it, wrapping it in leaves, and cooking it in an earth oven, making it a traditional delicacy.

Fruits of the pandanus family have specific characteristics that distinguish them from other fruits, including their very concentrated red color, indicating that the fruits are rich in beta carotene.

Description

Buah Merah is a medium-sized tree 2–3.5 m (6.6–11.5 ft) tall, grows in clusters of 12-30 individuals, until about 10 years old, and starts producing fruit at the age of 1.5-5 years old, with a fruiting period of about 3-4 months. The trunk has a diameter of around 20–40 cm (7.9–15.7 in), brown coloured with white patches, the direction of growth is vertical or upright, with around 2−4 branches, and has spiny surface. It has a taproot system with the main root length ranges from 0.2–3.5 m (0.66–11.48 ft), with root circumference 6–20 cm (2.4–7.9 in), brown coloured with white patches, the roots formed clumps of 6-97 roots/branch.

Leaves measuring 96 cm × 9.3 cm (37.8 in × 3.7 in) to 323 cm × 15 cm (127.2 in × 5.9 in). Has a strap-shaped (lanceolate-elongate) leaves that is mucronate at the tip and has a truncate base, the edges, the adaxial ventral pleats, and on the vein of the leaves are thorny. Single leaf composition with alternating leaf arrangement in a rosette and tristichous. Leaves are flexible, dark green, have parallel leaf veins, have no smell, and are attached directly to the stem with no petiole (sessile).

The flowers look like jackfruit flowers with reddish color. The individual fruit is a drupe, and these merge to varying degrees forming multiple fruit, can be cylindrical or triangular with blunt rounded tip and heart-shaped base, 30–110 cm (12–43 in) in length, 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in) in diameter measured in the middle.

Typically, the fruit changes from pale red to red brick color as it matures. Depending on its variety, like Mbarugum, Maler, and Magari, desirable attributes include having 5-10 fruits per clump, a soft pith, large size, can produce 120 ml oil per kg fruit, have 5-10 samplings per cluster, as well as numerous root branches.

Pandanus conoideus - Wikipedia