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. aromatic oil
(kevda oil) and fragrant distillation (otto) called "keorra-ka-arak". Used
plant part - male flowers. 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. The distillate (kewra water, pandanus flower water) is quite
diluted; it can be used by the teaspoon, often even by the tablespoon.
Most delightful, richest, and powerful of perfumes even when dried.
Identification credit: Tabish
Photographed in Manipur & Maharashtra.
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The flower labeled Kewda is ...