Report compiled for the 2007 Paris International Agricultural Fair
All you need to know about coconut
Botany
Coconut or Cocos nucifera
The name of the species, nucifera
, comes from the Latin nux
(nut) and fero
(I carry), ie bearing nuts. Until the 17th century, the fruit was simply called coco, but the term was subsequently replaced by "coconut".
The leaves, or fronds
These are emitted continuously from a single terminal bud (the heart). Coconut palms have a crown of around thirty green fronds. Each frond is 4 to 7 metres long and has around 200 leaflets either side of the rachis.
Flowers and then fruits
The inflorescences
comprise spikelets bearing female flowers at the base and male flowers towards the tip.
The fruits
, which develop in the axil of each frond, are known as drupes, or more commonly "coconuts".
The stem grows vertically non-stop. The more stripes it has, the older the palm. The base starts from an inverted cone, called the "root bulb", from which 3000 to 5000 ramified primary roots branch out, anchoring the palm in the soil to protect it from strong winds.
There are two main types of coconut palms:
Dwarfs and Talls
Dwarf coconut palms
rarely grow above 12 m tall. They begin fruiting four years after planting and produce small nuts.
They are easy to harvest due to their small size. Moreover, Dwarfs are often used as mother palms when producing hybrids. They fruit early but are more fragile, and are often planted near dwellings. The nuts come in a range of bright colours: yellow, orange, red, bronze, brown and green.
Tall coconut palms
can grow up to 25 or 30 m tall. They produce larger nuts, begin fruiting seven to ten years after planting and remain productive for up to 100 years.
Coconuts
The nuts comprise a smooth epidermis whose colour depends on the variety and the stage of ripening, covering a thick fibrous layer, known as the "husk".
It is this fibrous layer that covers the actual seed: a nut with a very hard shell.
The shell surrounds the albumen, an oil-bearing kernel of varying thickness.
It also contains a sterile liquid known as "coconut water". This is the nut's fresh water reserve, which enables it to germinate regardless of the outside conditions: salt water, deserted beaches, etc, provided the temperature is right, obviously.
Two varieties, the macapuno from the Philippines and the kopyor from java, do not produce albumen but a jelly that completely fills the nut. Their nuts are highly sought after for making desserts: cakes, drinks and ice cream.
The 710 known coconut varieties worldwide differ in terms of their morphological characteristics and degree of adaptation to a range of ecologies. For researchers, this diversity is an asset that can be put to good use in breeding disease-resistant varieties and hybrids. The different varieties are kept in living collections in the 38 countries making up the COGENT network.