HAVE you ever noticed ''pineapple'' trees growing in thickets behind many of Hong Kong's sandy beaches? They are not actually pineapples (which never hang on trees), but screw pines - owing their name to the spiral arrangement of the leaves.
The pineapple-like fruits are orange when ripe, round-or oval-shaped and about 30 cm long.
Although it is quite safe to eat, it is neither juicy nor sweet as a real pineapple is and inside the ripe flesh is orange and not yellow and is made up of individual segments.
But watch out, you may be hurt by its many long, pointed leaves which have toothed edges.
Most of the approximately 630 species of screw pine found in tropical countries grow in forests - only a few, like ours, are coastal plants.
The Hong Kong species is a palm-like evergreen tree, easily recognisable by its leaning trunk (from which many aerial roots develop, finally enlarging to prop roots if they reach the ground) and the large fruits, which are composed of a mass of matured ovaries densely crowded together.
