Revision of the Genus Pandanus Stickman, Part 25 
Pandanus tectorius var. sinensis Warburg 
Harold St. John 1 
Pandanus tectorius Warburg var. sinensis Warb., 
Engler’s Pflanzenreich IV, 9:48, 1900. 
(sect. Pandanus ) 
The entire presentation of this variety was: 
"Folia minora angusta flagello longo terminata, 
spinis marginalibus quam in typo majoribus 
armata. Phalanges minores pauci-(5-6-) locu- 
lares. Siidchina. (Warburg, Naumann, Henry).” 
This characterization is wholly inadequate, 
and no type was indicated. In the Berlin her- 
barium the original specimens were still to be 
found in 1962. Warburg 3,482 from Macao con- 
sists of a single leaf 77 cm long, 3 cm wide; 
near the base the marginal prickles are alter- 
nately small and large, the latter 4-6 mm long, 
straight subulate, stramineous, ascending at 45°, 
the successive prickles 5-12 mm apart; the sub- 
ulate leaf apex at the point about 10 cm down 
1.5 mm wide. Until complete material is known 
from Macao, Warburg 3,482 is undeterminable. 
The second specimen was from Hong Kong, 
Winter, 69/70, Dr. C. Naumann, and it con- 
tains parts of four leaves. It is probably P. 
remotus St. John. 
The third collection is more adequate. It is 
from Hainan, 1889, A. Henry. One sheet bears 
two young pistillate inflorescences. A second 
bears a pocket with several very young pha- 
1 B. P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii 96819. 
Manuscript received March 11, 1963. 
langes, and one mature phalange 3.3 cm long, 
but this is a distorted, very asymmetric, 6-celled, 
basal one, not suitable for identification, but, 
since it is the only fruiting one in the series, 
it is here designated as lectotype of the var. 
sinensis. A third sheet with the same data is 
A. Henry 8,290. This bears parts of two good 
staminate inflorescences. These three sheets 
from Hainan represent a plant that differs from 
P. hainanensis St. John in its much broader 
leaves, etc. These specimens are not complete 
enough to identify. 
In conclusion, the var. sinensis Warb. is in 
two parts indeterminable, and in the third part 
probably synonymous with P. remotus St. John. 
Subsequent botanists, apparently content with 
Warburg’s description, have identified numerous 
collections as belonging to this variety. They 
have recorded the plant from the Mascarene 
Islands, India, Cambodia, Malaya, Tonkin, 
Philippines, Formosa, New Caledonia, Australia, 
Tonga, and Hawaii. Their collections are di- 
verse, and do not represent one species or 
variety. Since the original var. sinensis Warb. 
is ill-defined and incapable of identification, 
these later locality records can be rejected with- 
out further comment. 
Since the author considers the publication 
of P. tectorius by Parkinson (or Solander) 
invalid, he now attributes it to Warburg, who 
in 1900 first validly published the binomial 
with a description. 
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