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Going nutty

Every part of the coconut palm is useful

Photo: S. Thanthoni

TROPICAL TREE The graceful palm requires warm, moist, deep loamy soil to thrive

Coconut palm or Cocos nucifera belongs to the family Arecaceae. It is a tall, stately coastal palm 20 m in height with stout stem surrounded by a crown of three-to four-metre long arching, handsome, pinnate, feather-like leaves. It is the most important palm of the tropics, supplying practically every requisite — including food, oil, alcohol, spirit, fibre, timber thatch and utensils. The base is surrounded by a mass of roots.

Portuguese root

The name is derived from the Portuguese "coco" or monkey, alluding to the nut being like monkey's head. The trunk is marked in rings each year by the scars of fallen leaves. The flowers are united in an inflorescence with stout thick spadix that are one metre long, divided into drooping spikes, bearing at their base female flowers are male flowers with thick stamens. The fruit is three-cornered, 25-30 cm long, with thick and fibrous pericarp, endocarp, and long with three basal pores, cavity filled with sweet water. The fruit ripens after nine to 10 months.

Cocos is believed to be of Indo-Malayan origin. Widespread and cultivated for centuries throughout the coastal areas, the palm requires a warm, moist, deep, loamy soil. Germination is after three months and flowering takes place after seven to eight years.

Coconut kernel yields a valuable fatty oil used in cooking, hair oil, lighting, soap making and in lubricants. Coconut oil is extracted from dried copra.

The husk (pericarp) when soaked in water for about three weeks yields coir fibre, which is made into mats, brushes, matting and strong coarse ropes. Brooms are made from the leaves. Coconut palm is one of nature's greatest gifts to mankind. Practically all parts of the plant are useful in one way or the other. So it is called kalpa vrisksha or kalpataru.

CHITRA RADHAKRISHNAN

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