What You Know About Coconut

Image via Wikipedia

Is Coconut a tree? No it is not a tree. Million of people around the world including Filipinos believed that coconut is a tree. But they are wrong. In our Filipino language, we called this plant as “Lobe, Lube, Buko or Niyog” as they refer to the entire plant. According to Wikipedia its scientific name is Cocos Nucifera – a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing up to 30m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6m long, and pinnae 60–90cm long. When the leaves became old they break away cleanly, leaving the trunk smooth. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word. Coconut tree is a misnomer for coconut which is not actually a tree. It has tree-like characteristics but it’s not a tree.

Who gave the name Coconut? It was England who gave its name as Coconut. The Indian state of Kerala is known as the Land of coconuts. The name derives from “Kera” (the coconut tree) and “Alam” (”place” or “earth”). Coconuts received the name from Portuguese explorers, the sailors of Vasco da Gama in India, who first brought them to Europe. The brown and hairy surface of coconuts reminded them of a ghost or witch called Coco. Before it was called nux indica, a name given by Marco Polo in 1280 while in Sumatra, taken from the Arabs who called it jawz hindī. Both names translate to “Indian nut.” When coco arrived in England, they retained the coco name and nut was added.

What is the sexuality of Coconut? The sexuality of Coconut is polygamomonoecious. The sexuality of a plant is determine through its flower. The flower of a plant is classified as female reproductive organ, male reproductive organ and bisexual reproductive organ. The Coconut plant has all these types of sexuality, the reason why its sexuality is called polygamomonoecious