Screw Pine Pandanus pedunculatus

Pandanus pedunculatus grows on headlands and behind dunes from northern New South Wales up the Queensland coast, which tells you most of what you need. The form is sculptural rather than pretty: long strap leaves in dense rosettes on branched candelabra stems, propped clear of the sand by a cluster of thick aerial roots. Mature plants carry segmented fruit that ripens orange, something like a green pineapple. It is the plant landscapers reach for on beachfront work, where salt spray and onshore wind burn most other planting back to sticks.

Built for the dune front

Full sun, sand and warmth are the brief. It performs on pure coastal sand, on gravel fill and on any free draining soil, needs little water once its roots are down, and handles salt spray, sand blast and reflected heat off paving or water. Inland and southern gardens are a different proposition: this is a warm coastal species, and cold ground that stays wet through winter is where it fails. The base darkens, the lower leaves pull away, and the plant declines over a season or two rather than dying quickly, which makes the cause easy to miss. Mound the planting position if your soil is clay, and skip it altogether in frost country. Placement matters as much as soil. Leaf margins and the underside of the midrib carry rows of sharp recurved spines that will open up a forearm, so set plants well back from paths, pool surrounds, driveways and play areas, and allow for the prop roots spreading outward at the base as the plant ages.

Native coastal stock against the ornamental selections

Among the screw pines here this is the one shaped by the coast rather than for the garden. Pandanus utilis Red Edge gives you broader blue green leaves and a red spined margin for a display bed, and the variegated Pandanus baptistii drops the spines entirely for courtyards and pool edges, but neither matches this species for holding a front line dune position. It also comes in a far wider run of container sizes, which matters when you are planting a foreshore in numbers rather than setting one specimen. For a taller coastal windbreak behind it, river she-oak is the usual partner. This is also the one of the four screw pines with a long record on Australian foreshores, which counts for something when a council or a body corporate has to sign off on the species list.

Gloves before you start

Wear gauntlets and long sleeves. Old leaves hang on the stem instead of shedding, so cut them off flush once or twice a year, working from outside the crown inward, and clear the fallen material away rather than leaving it to build up in the rosettes. Never cut a growing point unless you want the stem to branch there. On pure sand, nutrients wash straight through the profile, so spread a slow release product thinly in spring and again in summer rather than in one heavy dose. A dressing of trace elements suits plants on pure sand or over limestone fill, and mulch is worth keeping topped up while the plant establishes.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 12 sizes, from 200mm up to 1000L, priced from $39.95 to $4399.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.