Pandanus tectorius is of considerable importance in nearly all parts of the world where it grows, and it is devoted to most of the uses already noted for pandans in general. In certain places, large industries are founded on it. In India, the leaves are cut every second year and made into large bags. Hats are produced from it in the Pacific Islands, those from the Hawaiian group being especially well known. It is probable that the imitation Panama hats of the Loochoo Islands are also woven from a material (raffia) prepared from the common pandan. In the Marshall Islands it is recorded that forty varieties of this species have been evolved in the course of planting and cultivation for industrial purposes.
From the information submitted with the specimens received in the Bureau of Education, it is to be judged that the economic importance of the common pandan in the Philippines is of but little consequence. Though widely used, no large or even local industries are based upon it. A scattering production of hats, mats, and bags is reported in Abra, Union, Zambales, Mindoro, Bulacan, Rizal, Batangas, Sorsogon, Iloilo, Antique, Oriental Negros, Cebu, Leyte, and Sorsogon provinces. Near Badoc, Ilocos Norte, and along the Abra border the Tinguian people make mats from an upland variety for local trade. In Balayan, Batangas, the leaves are used for thatching. In Surigao they are also made into baskets. In most processes the preparation of the straw consists of cutting the leaves into strips and drying them. In Zambales, however, it is reported that the leaves are flattened, pressed, split, and rolled. In Mindoro, they are soaked in water and dried in the sun before being cut into straw. It is probable that much better material could be prepared from this pandan if such processes as are used in the making of sabutan straw and straw from the Majayjay pandan were followed.
Plate XXXVI. Sabutan at Tanay, Rizal.
Judging from the results obtained in other countries, it would seem that if suckers of the common pandan were taken, in the districts in which it grows, planted, and cultivated, varieties would result which would be much better adapted for industrial purposes than the parent stock. Indeed, it is probable that sabutan, the Philippine pandan of greatest economic importance, is a variety which is the result of generations of planting, still closely resembling P. tectorius but differing from it in its leaves, which are thinner, longer, of finer texture and of greater strength. It is possible also that sarakat, the economic pandan of the Bangui Peninsula, Ilocos Norte, is a variety of P. tectorius.
Varieties of the Common Pandan.
Sabutan.
Botanical.—It is a question among botanists whether the pandan known as sabutan is a variety of the common sea-shore pandan (P. tectorius) or whether it has sufficient distinctive characteristics to entitle it to be considered as a separate species (P. sabotan). Botanists have not as yet succeeded in securing a fruit of this pandan, which could settle the question, and it is very doubtful whether the fruit will ever be found.[7] Prof. Ugolino Martelli of Florence, Italy, an authority on pandans, considers sabutan to be Pandanus tectorius var. sinensis. This classification is for the present accepted, as most evidence is in favor of such determination and in this paper sabutan is therefore considered to be a variety of the common pandan, the chief change in which, through generations of planting, has been in the production of a leaf stronger, thinner, and of finer texture than that of the parent stock.
Plate XXXVII. Flower of sabutan.