Part 5 (2/2)
The Bontoc Peninsula of Tayabas produces great quant.i.ties of baling mats and bayons. Bayons are also produced in large quant.i.ties in Capiz province. Other localities are of less importance.
Buri sleeping mats are made from the northernmost part of Luzon, in the Bangui Peninsula, to the Sulu Archipelago. For the most part they are woven in small numbers here and there, in the different towns, sometimes for use in the household in which they are made, often for local trade in the barrios or munic.i.p.alities. In nearly every province there is at least one town in which the production of buri mats reaches provincial commercial importance. A number of munic.i.p.alities produce them for a fairly extensive trade with neighboring provinces. In most cases these are ordinary products, usually decorated with a few colors in lines or checks of dyed straws, either woven in or embroidered on the mat.
In one region, however, buri mats have reached such a degree of perfection in their weaving and decoration as to have become a distinctive product known throughout the Islands. These are the Romblon buri mats, and they are produced throughout the islands of Romblon. Their central market is the town of the same name. They are distinctive because of the fine white and colored materials used, and of the designs which are woven in them. In the designing, not only checks and line borders but also plaids appear, and many of the effects produced by floating straws are employed. The Romblon mat, moreover, is most noticeable because of the fancy weave, making a sort of open work along the border, for which these mats are unique. Romblon exports great quant.i.ties of mats varying in price from P0.25, to over P10, and in size from small mats for stands to large decorative mats which cover the sides of rooms. [9]
Pandan Straws.
Description of Pandans.
Pandans or ”screw-pines,” as they are sometimes called, are readily recognized by their characteristic appearance. [10] The common forms occasionally planted in pots as house plants and in gardens, or more often found growing wild, have long and rather narrow leaves always supplied with more or less sharp spines which run along both their margins to the very tip. Another row of spines is present on the under surface along the midrib. Bearing in mind this middle row of spines it is impossible to mistake the leaf of the pandan for that of the pineapple or maguey, which it resembles more or less in form and shape. Another very prominent feature of pandans is the presence of air or prop roots which grow from the stem above the ground and are helpful to the plant in various ways. The veins of the leaves always run parallel and in a longitudinal direction. The leaves are never borne on a petiole, but are attached directly, in winding corkscrew fas.h.i.+on, in ranks of three, to the stem.
Pandans are true tropical shrubs or trees. Although also found in the subtropics of Australia, they never occur in other temperate regions except when raised as ornamental plants in greenhouses. Even their distribution in the tropics is limited, as they are found growing wild only in the tropical regions of the Old World, especially on the islands lying between the mainland of Australia and southeastern Asia. They are hardly ever cultivated, for where they do occur they are found in more than sufficient quant.i.ty for the purposes to which they are put. They are essentially seacoast or open swamp forms, generally found at low alt.i.tudes and appearing to find a moist, warm climate most congenial to their growth. In the Philippines they occur in all provinces, though not always in sufficient quant.i.ty to make them of commercial importance.
The structure of the pandans presents many exceedingly interesting characteristics well worth noticing. Some plants are very low with leaves not wider than a blade of gra.s.s, while others form large trees with leaves many meters long and several decimeters wide. Spines generally occur along the whole margin of the leaf, though in a few forms, especially in cultivated varieties, they may be present only at the tip or may be wanting entirely. The marginal spines usually curve forward and vary in size from small, hardly perceptible forms, to large sharp conical structures. At times they are set very close together; again they may be several centimeters apart. Those on the midrib most often curve backwards and may vary the same as the marginal spines. Generally the spines are green in color, though in some species they are pale-green, red, black or white.
Some forms seem to creep along the ground, while others, low and bushy and standing close together, form, with their numerous supporting prop roots, an almost impenetrable jungle. The high tree forms are very striking because of their peculiarly shaped crowns.
The first roots which the pandans develop soon disappear and their place is taken by others. Starting high above the ground, these grow at an angle from the stem and generally reach the soil. They serve the twofold purpose of supporting the stem and of supplying it with sufficient air. If, by accident, the underground roots die off, the plant relies entirely on these air and prop roots for support and food. The strong prop roots are generally of the same diameter throughout, though sometimes they thicken at the ends. Normally they never branch above the ground, but after reaching the soil very often divide. The tip of the roots is protected by a cap, while a layer of cork tissue prevents the drying out of the root body.
The pandan has two kinds of flowers, male and female. The male flowers are arranged in the form of a spike protected by a modified leaf called the bract. They are white in color, crowded together on the spike and consist of stamens which hold the pollen. The flowers do not have the showy colored bracts which forms so prominent a feature in those of many other plants. The female flowers consist only of the necessary parts. As the pollen occurs in enormous quant.i.ties and as the plants generally grow in groups, it is very probable that some flowers are pollinated by the wind. The fact that many pandans have very fragrant blossoms makes it almost certain that in the majority of cases insect pollination takes place. In a few forms that have a very disagreeable odor, pollination is effected by night flying insects.
The fruit commonly has the general shape of the female inflorescence, but as it matures it increases greatly in size. Pandans have a composite fruit made up of smaller fruits called drupes. The most common forms resemble the pineapple with its leafy fruit apex cut off. As is natural, variations from this type occur. Cylindrical, eggshaped, jackfruit-like forms are quite common. The largest may be 60 cm. long and weigh 25 kilos, the smallest only 7 cm. in length and 60 grams in weight. The fruit may occur solitary at the end of a branch, or in groups. The color is green, though some species change to a bright red before maturity is reached. The fruit may have drupes ranging from 12 mm. to 14 mm. in length and these may contain one seed or a number of seeds. At maturity the drupes separate and the fruit falls apart. If the plant occurs along the water, the seeds, when liberated, float about until they rest in a suitable place for germination.
Uses of Pandans.
Pandans are valued chiefly for their strong fibrous leaves, which are woven into mats, bags, and hats. Unless specially prepared, the soft plant tissue between the harder leaf fibers becomes dry and dirty and breaks in time; hence the ordinary pandan bag or mat can not be considered a durable article. However, when treated to a boiling process or when rolled, as explained for sabutan and the pandan of Majayjay, the leaves yield straw which is stronger and more durable than most palm or sedge straw used for the same purposes.
Pandan mats are important articles of domestic commerce in Malaysia, as it is estimated that four-fifths of the total population use them for sleeping purposes. In all places except where palms, like the buri or sedges occur, they yield the most suitable and most easily prepared mat material. Generally the whole leaf is utilized after removing the marginal and midrib spines. The coa.r.s.est mats are used in drying out copra, cacao beans, paddy, and such products. Pandan mats are made and used widely in the Philippines.
Formerly, before gunny sacks came into general use, coffee was packed in pandan bags and where pandans did not grow they were introduced and cultivated for that purpose. Even to-day bags from pandan play an important part in transporting sugar, coffee, and other tropical products in and around southern Asia. Few pandan bags are made in the Philippines in comparison with the enormous quant.i.ty of bayons woven of buri straw and used to contain domestic rice and export sugar.
Pandans are used extensively for making hats in the Philippines as well as in other parts of the world. In several islands of the Pacific very fine ones are woven from straw consisting of the whole leaf cut into strips. In the Loochoo Islands imitation Panama hats of great strength are woven from the skin of a pandan, bleached and rolled into a straw. In the Philippines numerous varieties of pandan hats are produced, varying in grade from the fine and expensive sabutan to the coa.r.s.e pandan. [11]
In some other places, as Burma, pandan leaves are woven or sewed into sails. In southern India they are utilized as umbrella covering. If no stronger material is obtainable, the leaves are placed on roofs as thatching, but they do not seem to lend themselves well to that purpose. In countries where they grow, they are often used instead of twine or made into ropes or hunting nets, or into drag ropes for fis.h.i.+ng nets. They are said to be excellent paper-making material. In some islands the fibers are separated from the leaf and used by the inhabitants in the manufacture of belts and ap.r.o.ns.
The wood of the tree pandans is too spongy and soft to make a good material for the construction of houses. Still, on small islands, such as the Coral and Marshall Islands, the natives construct their huts from pandan wood. Generally, it is used only for rough, temporary work. In some localities the soft interior part is removed to make water pipes. Again, because of its lightness, the wood is used by the people on the many islands of the Pacific to buoy their fis.h.i.+ng nets.
Pandan roots are employed for various purposes. If sufficiently thin they are used, after being cleaned, for making baskets. The roots may also be pounded out, cleaned and made into brushes for painting or whitewas.h.i.+ng houses. They are sometimes so employed in the Philippines. They are also used for cordage. A medicinal oil is sometimes obtained from them.
The flowers of some pandans, especially those of Panda.n.u.s tectorius, are extremely fragrant. This plant is the most widely distributed of the pandans and is the most frequent pandan found along the seacoast and in low alt.i.tudes. Some botanists claim that the male flowers of this species have the sweetest odor known among plants. So powerful is their fragrance that by it sailors can often tell the presence of land before they actually see it. The natives in some places use the flowers in making an aromatic water, or, by distillation, a volatile oil, known as keura oil, which is used medicinally for rheumatism.
Certain pandan fruit is extremely oily and serves at times as a subst.i.tute for b.u.t.ter. The sap has the taste of sweet apples and is relished by the inhabitants in many islands. In some places it is even made into fruit jam.
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