Cocos nucifera
“coconut”
Taxonomy
Domain: Eukaryota - Whittaker & Margulis,1978
Kingdom: Plantae - Haeckel, 1866
Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
Phylum: Tracheophyta - Sinnott, 1935 Ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998
Subphylum: Euphyllophytina
Infraphylum: Radiatopses - Kenrick & Crane, 1997
Class: Liliopsida - Scopoli, 1760
Subclass: Arecidae - Takhtajan, 1967
Superorder: Arecanae - Takhtajan, 1967
Order: Arecales - Bromhead, 1840
Family: Arecaceae - Schultz-Schultzenstein, 1832
Subfamily: Arecoideae
Tribe: Cocoeae
Subtribe: Butiinae
Genus: Cocos - Linnaeus, 1753
Specific epithet: nucifera - L.
Common names
• coconut, coconut palm (English)
• iru (Palau)
• niu (Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Hawaii)
• nu (Chuuk, Cook Islands)
• nyiur (Malaysia)
• niyog (Guam & Philippines)
• nizok (N. Mariana Islands)
• lubi (Bis.)
• woody perennial monocotyledon
• erect
• crown of fronds single unbranched stem
• 40 yrs. old height of 20–22 m (66–72 ft)
• 80 yrs. old height of 35–40 m (115–130 ft)
• canopy has a diameter of 8–9 m (26–30 ft)
• Fibrous roots
• Woody not because of 2° growth
leaves
• Entire until year 1
• “fronds”
• Pinnate or peripinnate
• Fronds are 4.5–5.5 m (15–18 ft) in length
• the petiole makes up a quarter of its length
• 200–250 linear-lanceolate leaflets arranged in a single
plane on either side of the rachis.
• Leaflets are 1.5–5 cm (0.6–2 in) wide and 50–150 cm (20–
60 in) long.
• Petiole and rachis may be green or bronze
• Talls 12–18 leaves
• Dwarfs 20–22 leaves per year.
flowers
• Monoecious
• Spadix
• Flowering spathe splits lengthwise to expose the spadix.
• 40–60 spikelets
• Each spikelet up to three female flowers (“buttons”) at the base
• several hundred male flowers above
• Male six perianth segments surrounding six stamens
• Female larger, globose, six perianth segments in two whorls, a
tricarpellate ovary and trifid stigma
• After pollination, only one carpel develops
• Anthesis is usually completed before the female becomes receptive
Fruit
• fibrous drupe
• a thin hard skin (exocarp),
• a thicker layer of fibrous husk (mesocarp)
• the white kernel and water (endosperm)
• Young exocarp green, bronze
• May weigh between 850 and 3700 g (1.9–8.1
lb) when mature
TREE OF LIFE
food
• Buko juice
• Coconut honey
• Tuba
• Gata
• Palm sugar
medicinal
• Constipation: Take 1 to 2 tablespoons of gata (cream)
• Dandruff: Massage oil on scalp, leave overnight, and
wash hair
• Sore throats: Young roots astringent
• Dry skin: Apply oil and massage into affected area
• Diarrhea and/or vomiting: Drink water of young fruit.
– Water substitute for dextrose infusion during World
War II
• Virgin coconut oil immune system, heart, skin, liver,
removes toxins, etc.
timber
fuel
• The shell is dried shell charcoal
• But all plant parts can also be burned
• Seed oil lamps and torches
crafts
Fiber & dye
Cosmetics &
body ornaments
• Male flowers heated in coconut oil to
perfume tapa cloth
• Bark scent in body oil
• Oil soap, body massage, hair
Sociocultural
• Boundary markers in
Hawaii
• Religious offerings
• A comb is submerged in
coconut milk with sugar
to make the mother's
breast full of milk
“The coconut trees, lithe and
graceful, crowd the beach like
a minuet of slender elderly
virgins adopting flippant
poses.”
William Manchester
