Taxi drivers in Bermuda are, of course, much more than drivers; they are Bermuda’s best ambassadors and a font of information about the island. This was certainly true of the gentleman who picked up the mother of a friend of mine from the airport when she visited from Maryland in around 1978. She told my friend all about her drive to Southampton. Apparently, with that courtesy so innate to Bermudians, he kindly pointed out landmarks and flora he thought would interest her and easily answered all her questions.
What’s unusual about that, you may wonder. Why do I remember this after so many years? Well, it’s the reason he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, readily answer one of her questions that still makes me smile. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing to a tree she saw out of the window. Now, if he had known its botanical name, Pandanus utilis, he would have told her immediately, but he was no botany expert and so, struggling with the double entendre of its common name, he hemmed and hawed and tried to change the subject. Naturally his reticence intrigued her (after all in the famous tree story of Genesis, didn’t Eve want to know?) and so she pushed him until he finally came out with it: “Screw pine.” My friend said she wasn’t sure who was the more embarrassed—her mother or the taxi driver.
It’s not so surprising that tree attracted my friend’s mother’s attention since even today there are not nearly as many screw pines on the island as there are palmettos and palms. And with its thin pointed leaves of spiral rosettes looking as if they’ve been glued onto the end of its branches, its thorns and ariel stilt roots, and its white spikes of flowers (on the male tree, the female tree’s flowers being less showy), a screw pine is certainly distinctive. In fact, the “screw” part of its name (it’s also known as a screw palm) is thanks to the corkscrew-like pattern formed by the circular scars left on its branches after its leaves fall off.
Neither pine nor palm, the tree is often referred to as “pine” because, in the distance anyway, the unusual fruits produced by the female tree resemble pineapples. Actually, my husband says they look far more like hand grenades about to explode, an opinion which confirms to me the effects a military boarding school can have on a child’s mind. Each consists of anywhere between one hundred to two hundred individual fruits or, as they are technically known, drupes, which merge together into one roughly globular syncarp. The drupes start off green and become yellow. (I have to say that during Hurricane Ernesto, I realised Mike might have had a point since the fruits did appear to explode judging from the number of drupes lying on the ground, and the naked, fibrous spheres, now more like old tennis balls, left hanging from the branches.) Everyone agrees they are not as delicious as pineapples, however. Apparently, they are tastier when cooked although I have to admit I don’t fancy trying them out for dessert. Using the whole fruits as table decorations is a better idea altogether.
Native to Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands, it’s not certain when screw pines arrived on the island. Governor Lefroy did not mention them in his Memorials. Matthew Jones didn’t mention them in The Naturalist in Bermuda either. But Nathanial Lord Britton did refer to them in his book Bermuda Flora, published in 1918, saying there were some “fine specimens to be seen” on the island. Louisa Hutchings also refers to them in Bermuda’s Oldest Inhabitants, suggesting they probably were introduced here via the West Indies.
In their native countries, the leaves and roots of the screw pine lived up to the utilis part of their botanical name since, cut into strips, they were used for making nets, sacks, bags for sugar and coffee, baskets and hats. Not so here, but that’s not surprising. After all, we have our own endemic Bermuda palmetto (Sabal bermudana) which, since our earliest settlement, we’ve used for innumerable purposes including making baskets, hats and thatch. Besides, our palmetto does not have the disadvantage of bearing thorns. But we certainly appreciate the exotic touch our screw pines give to our gardens and parks as eventually the taxi driver was able to admit once decorum was restored.
