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

Source: http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/fragrant.html

See Also: idul fitri, hamper hari raya, hari raya hampers