The plant Pandanus is often called a Pandanus palm, but it is not a true palm.

There are many species of Pandanus across tropical and subtropical regions of the world. They vary from small shrubs not more than a meter high to 30-metre trees. They frequently have distinctive prop roots.

The Pandanus palms of K’gari have had a tough time over the ages. In the main, but not exclusively, they live on coastal sand dunes. However, they pop up all over the island in unexpected places, probably spread by fruit bats, that chew on the soft flesh at the base of the ripe seed.

Horses: In the early days when brumbies ranged over the island, they did a lot of damage to the Pandanus population. They knocked trees over and eat the soft fleshy growing tips.

Cyclones: Pandanus frequently establish on the very frontal dunes on the East Coast. This is a very dangerous location as tropical cyclones periodically wash frontal dunes away, Pandanus and all.

Jamella: It was the arrival of a small insect that has done the greatest damage in recent times. A leaf hopper called Jamella australiae, less than 10mm long arrived in Southeast Queensland from North Queensland in nursery stock. FIDO’s late John Sinclair reported an infestation at Happy Valley in 2011. It is now island-wide.  

Jamella sucks sap from the growing tip of the plant, then secretes out a sweet liquid that provides the perfect habitat for many microorganisms to grow, resulting in the slow death of the growing tips caused by rot. This is referred to as Pandanus die back.

Large numbers of K’gari’s Pandanus are dead or dying as a result.

Fire: Wildfires raged on K’gari in late 2020. Many of the East Coast dunes were badly affected by very hot fire. The Pandanus, already suffering from Jamella-induced die back took another serious hit.

Help is on the way. FIDO wrote to the Queensland Government after the fire and proposed that we conduct a Pandanus Rehabilitation Program on K’gari. The suggestion was taken up and a team of volunteers is now in the process of propagating and planting new seedlings on the East Coast of K’gari. The project is funded for a year with a provision for a one-year extension.

Article contributed by Peter Shooter, K’gari (Fraser Island) Defenders Organisation (FIDO)