Screw Pine
Pandanus odorifer
Fragrant Screw Pine is a small branched tree or shrub with fragrant flowers, found wild in southern India, Burma and the Andamans. It is a small, slender, branching tree with a flexuous trunk supported by brace roots. With rosettes of long-pointed, stiffly leathery, spiny, bluish-green, fragrant leaves, it bears in summer very fragrant flowers. It is used as perfume. They are almost exclusively used in the form of a watery distillate called kewra water. Flowers have a sweet, perfumed odor that has a pleasant quality similar to rose flowers, but kewra is more fruity. Most delightful, richest, and powerful of perfumes even when dried.
Fragrant Screw Pine, Umbrella Tree