All About Coconuts . . .

Coconut palm (Cocos nucifera)

       Climbing a fruit tree to get apples is easy compared to gaining the top of a tall palm tree to reach the coconuts. The stem of the coconut palm rises from sixty to a hundred met in the air, without a branch. At the top the long leaves form a huge “feather duster” with large bunches of fruit, almost hidden, near the center.

       The coconuts in the clusters do not seem at all like those we buy in market. That is because those in the market have had the outer husk removed. The coconut is protected by many coats. The brown outer covering is rather thin but tough. Beneath this is a spongy husk an inch or more thick, made of a mass of fibers. Underneath the fibrous coat is the hard shell in which the coconut is sent to market. Within the hard shell is found the meat and milk. One end of the coconut has three small holes, which give the fruit the appearance of a monkey face with eyes and rounded mouth. Two of these holes are closed, one open. It is through this opening that the young sprout of a new plant emerges.

       It is as interesting to watch the growth of a coconut from seed to palm tree as to see a baby chick grow to a crowing cock. If the weather is very warm and damp, the coconut may sprout before it is planted. On germination the growing point makes its way through the opening in the shell. Once well outside, it continues to grow and develops thick white roots which push their way through the fibrous husk. The sprout also develops a green shoot or “plumule”, which pushes toward the sunlight. That part of the infant plant, which in almost all plants forms the seedling leaf or leaves, remains within the coconut shell and is transformed into a large absorptive organ. It bulges into the center of the coconut until it fills the whole interior. Then it acts as a temporary stomach, absorbing the milk and the meat, which is the food stored in the nut for the growth of the young palm tree. When the food is used up, the absorptive organ shrivels; and the whole coconut shell begins to decay. The young tree is now able to get food from the ground and the air.

       Like other palms the young coconut tree sheds its lower leaves continuously; the slender stem is rough with leaf scars and shreds of old leaf sheaths. As soon as the tree is old enough it begins to form its large flower clusters. There are two kinds of flowers,—numerous small ones filled with pollen; and large ones which are later to become the fruit. When the wind blows, the pollen is scattered like dust on the large seed-bearing blossoms; and then the small flowers die and fall. The large flowers, which at first look more like tiny pumpkins than like flowers, soon grow larger and turn green. For a time they seem like large acorns; and then they begin to develop the thick outer covering of the full-grown coconut. Coconut palms begin to bear fruit when they are six or seven years old and continue to produce crops of coconuts for fifty years or more. Like many plants in tropical climates, flowers and fruits can be seen at the same time on a single tree practically all year.

       Natives of some tropical places used to depend largely on the coconut palm for food, clothing and shelter. The leaf bud at the very top of the tree makes delicious palm cabbage salad; but to gather it kills the tree. The sap of the tree, obtained usually by cutting the unopened flower clusters, is boiled down to sugar or fermented to produce palm wine. In some places in the South Seas, coconuts form the main dish for breakfast, dinner and supper. The fruit is usually eaten before it ripens. The milky liquid in the green fruit makes a refreshing drink. Sometimes the softer portions of the meat, mixed with coconut milk, are eaten as a kind of pudding. Children of the tropics eat a strange kind of coconut candy,—the part of the sprouted coconut which bulges into the center and absorbs the meat and milk. It is tender and sweet. Some island peoples make coconut oil by exposing the meat in the sun until it shrinks and the oil contents ooze out; then they rub the oil over their bodies.

       Coconut shells make good dishes. Some Melanesians cut, carve and polish the shells and produce beautiful baskets and cups. One group in the South Seas seeks the aid of a hungry shrimp to hollow out coconuts so that the shells can be used as bottles. Coconuts with their “eyes” punched open are placed in water where a small variety of shrimp lives. The creature swims through the eye into the center of the coconut and eats out all the meat; thus the unbroken shell becomes a bottle.

       Coconut palm leaves may be used as roof thatch; and split palm leaves provide natural fringe for skirts. The midribs and splints from the large leaves are woven into baskets, fire fans and other useful objects. Many people today make a business of raising coconuts to get “copra”,—the dried meat full of valuable oil; “coir”,—the fibrous material in the husk; and fresh white meat good for shredding, ready for cakes and candies. To name every product of the coconut palm tree would make a very long list, indeed. Fisher

The Lifecycle of the coconut tree.