Coconut Tree

Scientific Name :

Cocos nucifera L.

Synonym(s) :

Local/Common name(s) :

Thengu, Coconut Tree

Family :

Arecaceae

Habit :

Tree

Flowering/Fruiting Time :

Throughout the year

Habitat :

Cultivated

Endemic :

No

Status (IUCN) :

Distribution :

Cultivated throughout the tropics

Nativity :

Uses :

Food, oil, medicine

Description (Morphology) :

Trees with annular petiolar scars. Leaves pinnatisect, 4-6 m long; leaflets reduplicate, 60-100 x 2.5-5 cm, base narrow, apex tapering, acute. Spadices interfoliar, 50-100 cm long, panicled; branches to 60 cm long. Spathe 60-130 cm long, oblong, woody. Flowers monoecious, subsessile. Male flowers: often paired, to 8 mm long. Sepals c. 3 mm long, ovate. Petals 6-8 mm long, ovate, woody, yellowish-brown. Stamens 6; pistillode short, 3-fid. Female flowers 1-3 per branch, basal, globose. Perianth-lobes 6; woody; outer lobes broadly obovate, c. 2 cm across; inner lobes reniform, to 2 cm across. Ovary 3-celled; ovule 1 per cell; style short. Drupe to 30 cm long, ovoid or globose, trigonous; pericarp fibrous; endocarp stony. Seed coherent with the endocarp.