Coconut, Coconut

It is the only species in the genus Cocos , and is a large palm, growing to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 46 m long, pinnae 6090 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly leaving the trunk smooth. The term coconut refers to the seed of the coconut palm . The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word.

Its fruit are very similar to the coconut. It was originally classified in Cocos genus along with the coconut, but was later moved to Syagrus.

Foale, M. " The Coconut Odyssey: the bounteous possibilities of the tree of life. " Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research 2003. Accessed 2009-05-30.

Flowering occurs continuously, with female flowers producing seeds. Coconut palms are believed to be largely cross-pollinated, although some dwarf varieties are self-pollinating. Coconuts also come with a liquid that is clear like water but sweet. The "nut" of the coconut is edible, and is in the shape of a ball or is on the inside sides of the coconut.

Fossil records from New Zealand indicate that small, coconut-like plants grew there as long as 15 million years ago. Even older fossils have been uncovered in Kerala (Kerala means "land of coconut palms"), Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, [1] , Maharashtra (India) and the oldest known so far in Khulna, Bangladesh.

The later Culawamasa states that King Aggabodhi I (575608) planted a coconut garden of 3 yojanas length, possibly the earliest recorded coconut plantation. It is also common in Trinidad and Tobago.

It prefers areas with abundant sunlight and regular rainfall (150 cm to 250 cm annually), which makes colonizing shorelines of the tropics relatively straightforward. Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry: Cocos nucifera (pdf file) Coconuts also need high humidity (7080%+) for optimum growth, which is why they are rarely seen in areas with low humidity, like the Mediterranean, even where temperatures are high enough (regularly above 24C).

One recently selected cultivar, 'Maypan', has been bred for resistance to this disease. The fruit may also be damaged by eriophyid coconut mites. The coconut is also used as a food plant by the larvae of many Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species, including Batrachedra spp : B. arenosella , B. atriloqua (feeds exclusively on Cocos nucifera ), B. mathesoni (feeds exclusively on Cocos nucifera ), and B. nuciferae.

The Eriophyid coconut mite ( Eriophyes guerreronis ) is devastating and can cause damages up to 90% in coconut production. The immature nuts are infested and desapped by staying in the portion covered by the Perianth of the immature nut. Subsequently the nuts drop off or survive deformed. Spraying with Wettable Sulfur 0.4% alternately with neem based pesticides can give some relief, but is cumbersome and labor intensive. Research on this topic gave no results and the researchers from the Kerala Agricultural University and the Central Plantation Crop Research Institute, Kasaragode are still searching for a cure. The /Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kannur under Kerala Agricultural University has developed an innovative extension approach called Compact area group approach to combat coconut mites.

Coconut palms will grow from Bradenton southwards on Florida's west coast, and Melbourne southwards on Florida's east coast. The occasional coconut palm is seen north of these areas in favoured microclimates in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area and around Cape Canaveral, as well as the Orlando-Kissimmee-Daytona Beach metro area. They may likewise be grown in favoured microclimates in the Rio Grande Valley area of Deep South Texas near Brownsville and on Galveston Island. They may reach fruiting maturity, but are damaged or killed by the occasional winter freezes in these areas. While coconut palms flourish in south Florida, unusually bitter cold snaps can kill or injure coconut palms there as well. Only the Florida Keys and the coastlines provide safe havens from the cold for growing coconut palms on the U.S. mainland.

For coconut palms to survive in Southern California, they need sandy soil and minimal water in the winter to prevent root rot, and would benefit from root heating coils.

Pollachi and its surrounding villages are the largest coconut growing hubs in India, and is famous for the most tender coconuts in India. And, they are also famous for the coconut-based products like tender coconut water, copra, coconut oil, coconut cake, coconut toddy, coconut shell-based products, coconut wood-based products, coconut leaves, and coir pith.

Training schools for pig-tailed macaques still exist both in southern Thailand, and in the Malaysian state of Kelantan. Training without Reward: Traditional Training of Pig-Tailed Macaques as Coconut Harvesters, Mireille Bertrand, Science 27 January 1967:Vol. 155. no. 3761, pp. 484 - 486 Competitions are held each year to find the fastest harvester.

The husk, or mesocarp, is composed of fibers called coir;the inner stone, or endocarp is the hardest part of the nut. The endocarp (the outside of the coconut as sold in the shops of non-tropical countries) has three germination pores that are clearly visible on the outside surface once the husk is removed. It is through one of these that the radicle emerges when the embryo germinates. Adhering to the inside wall of the endocarp is the testa , with a thick albuminous endosperm (the coconut "meat"), the white and fleshy edible part of the seed.

However, there has been some debate as to whether or not the saturated fat in coconuts is healthier than the saturated fat found in other foods (see coconut oil for more information). Coconut meat also contains less sugar and more protein than popular fruits such as bananas, apples and oranges, and it is relatively high in minerals such as iron, phosphorus and zinc.

The resulting thick, white liquid is used in much Asian cooking, for example, in curries. Coconut water from the unripe coconut can be drunk fresh. Young coconuts used for coconut water are called tender coconuts. The water of a tender coconut is liquid endosperm. It is sweet (mild) with aerated feel when cut fresh. Depending on the size a tender coconut could contain the liquid in the range of 300 to 1,000 ml.

But the main reason to pick the fruit at this stage is to drink its water; a large unripe coconut contains up to one liter. The meat in a young coconut is softer and more like gelatin than a mature coconut, so much so, that it is sometimes known as coconut jelly. When the coconut has ripened and the outer husk has turned brown, a few months later, it will fall from the palm of its own accord. At that time the endosperm has thickened and hardened, while the coconut water has become somewhat bitter., Kerala for making copra, which is used for making coconut oil When the coconut fruit is still green, the husk is very hard, but green coconuts only fall if they have been attacked by moulds, etc. By the time the coconut naturally falls, the husk has become brown, the coir has become drier and softer, and the coconut is less likely to cause damage when it drops. Still, there have been instances of coconuts falling from palms and injuring people, and claims of some fatalities. This was the subject of a paper published in 1984 that won the Ig Nobel Prize in 2001. Falling coconut deaths are often used as a comparison to shark attacks; the claim is often made that a person is more likely to be killed by a falling coconut than by a shark, yet, there is no evidence of people ever being killed in this manner.

The process of husk extraction from the coir bypasses the retting process, using a custom-built coconut husk extractor designed by ASEAN-Canada Forest Tree Seed Centre (ACFTSC) in 1986. Fresh husks contains more tannin than old husks. Tannin produces negative effects on sapling growth. Somyos Kijkar. "Handbook: Coconut husk as a potting medium". ASEAN-Canada Forest Tree Seed Centre Project 1991, Muak-Lek, Saraburi, Thailand. ISBN 974-3612-77-1.

In certain parts of South India, the shell and husk also are burned for smoke to repel mosquitoes. Coconut shell is sometimes used to 'ward away the evil eye' in South India.

The use of coconut branches in corporal punishment was revived in the Gilbertese community on Choiseul in the Solomon Islands in 2005.

Source: Wikipedia > Coconut