atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

(Topside); women were formerly responsible for the care and cultivation of pandanus,
although men helped in the initial clearing of land. An important staple to the Nauruans
and to the I-Kiribati and Tuvaluans on their home islands. Very important fresh fruit and
staple in Nauru and other atoll and Micronesian countries. Named cultivars which still
exist on Nauru include enaben (enabun), erabaite (erabwaite), eragadibyaw, eragomogom
(eragumugum), inaparabei (inaporabei), inimenoiya, irireiab, and iriribe; other named
cultivars, which are reportedly now extinct due to mining, bombing during World War
11, and failure to replant, include eraburabur (eraburbur), eramwimwi, erarapaiwa
(erarapeiwa, erarapwiewa), erkibwir, erokwoi, eronubwe, erwuro, inibiterin, and itoidi
(etoidi). Some of these cultivars may be P. dubius (see above). Ripe fruit of all cultivars
eaten in Nauru as a vitamin-A-rich snack food and also cooked or fermented and put on
pandanus mats or leaves in the sun to dry to make a "rich man's" food known as edongo,
which is also a traditional food for the sick; leaves, which are commonly soaked in fresh
water or boiled, are plaited into mats (itubare), baskets, and other plaited ware, and
make the best traditional thatching and roofing; main trunk and stilt roots used in house
construction; wood and dried fruit sometimes burned as fuel; thin outside bark of the stilt
roots scraped and mixed with coconut juice to cure constipation and poor appetite; I-
Kiribati use leaves as cigarette wrappers. According to Wedgewood (1936), during the
yearly pandanus harvest (ineded), which usually occurred around August or September,
people used to ieave their homes on the coast to stay in temporary bush huts on the
pandanus lands in the interior. 2, 3(58760), 5(64), 6, 7(27814?).
Pandanus sanderi Hort. ex Masters "variegated pandanus"
Recent introduction. Indomalaysia to the Pacific Is. Rare. Perennial shrub with
long pointed variegated green leaves with yellow-white margins. Planted ornamental. 6.
Andropogon sp.
POACEAE OR GRAMINAE (Grass Family)
Recent Introduction. Rare. Small perennial grass. Local on strip-mined land.
3(58736).
Arundo donax L. "giant reed"
Recent intr~diiCtion.~OTd
World. OccTsionnX Lai-ge perenniiil grass or reed with
strong, bamboo-like, erect hollow stems, 2 to 4 cm in diameter, rising in clumps, up to
4 m high; leaves, 50 to 70 cm long and 2 to 6 cm wide, flat, pale bluish-green, smooth;
inflorescence, a large feathery flowering panicle, up to 70 cm long, with whitish to