INTRODUCTION TO COCONUT PALM TREE

 

COCONUT PALM

Family - Arecaceae

Scientific name - Cocos nucifera

COMMON NAMES –

   1) Naryal or Naral in Marathi.

   2) Tenkar in Tamil.

GROWING AREAS –  

   1) The origins of this tree are a mystery.

   2) It may have come from South America, the nut being carried by sea tides and currents from place to place.

   3) It is however generally believed to have come from the Cocos islands in the Indian Ocean.

   4) It has grown in India for many hundreds of years.

   5) It is cultivated in all hot damp regions, particularly low-lying sandy areas near the sea.

GENERAL INFORMATION –  

   1) The palm takes about eight to ten years to mature (that means to grow to full size and bear fruit).

   2) In some cultivated palms take as little as five years to produce nuts.

   3) By the time it is ten years old it has a large number of feathery leaves.

                                  

   4) The tree is tall, and medium to fast growing.

   5) It has a slender and usually straight trunk, ringed at intervals by the scars of the fallen leaves (I have mentioned this in the introduction).

   6) The bottom (base) of the trunk is swollen and surrounded by Roots.

   7) The bark is dark grey-brown and quite smooth.

   8) The wood is water-resistant and called porcupine wood because of the attractive design on it.

LEAVES OF THE COCONUT PALM –

                                     

   1) These are large and feather-like.

   2) These leaves appear in a cluster at the top of the tree.

   3) Each leaf takes about a month to develop.

FLOWERS OF THE COCONUT PALM –

   1) Male and female flowers grow together on a branched stalk which start from the point where the leaves join the trunk.

                                       

   2) There are many of them and they are yellowish-orange and look like small Catkins (spike of soft, feathery flowers hanging from twigs of trees like willows and birches).

   3) The male flowers are smaller, there are more of them and they have a scent.

FRUIT OF THE COCONUT PALM –

   1) There will be few of you who have not seen a coconut in some form or other.

   2) About the size of a man’s head, it has a green outer covering which turns yellow and then brown when the nut is ripe.

                                            

   3) The string-like fibre covering the shell of the coconut is to protect the nut within.

   4) Inside the nut is a liquid which sweetens as the nut ripens.

   5) This liquid then gradually becomes a thick white solid which coats the inside of the nut and is called copra.

   6) Some trees can grow over a hundred nuts a year, which makes them very good crop trees.

USES OF THE COCONUT PALM –

   1) This is perhaps the most useful tree in India as nearly every part of it can be used.

   2) In South India it is called ‘Green gold’.

   3) The string-like covering inside the outer case called coir is used to make rope, carpets, and mattresses.

   4) The ribs of the leaves are used for making kites and brooms.

   5) From the sap or juice of the tree palm wine or toddy is produced.

   6) The kernel or copra inside the nut is eaten.

   7) When crushed it gives coconut oil from which candles, soap, margarine and many other things are made.

   8) In South India most of the food is cooked in coconut oil.

   9) During the Second World War injured soldiers urgently needing body fluids were given transfusions (that means injecting liquids into the veins) directly from coconuts.

 10) This was because the water inside the nut is sterile (that means it contains no germs).

 11) Different types, of coconut palms are being grown now which not only produce nuts much sooner but are also shorter in height so that the nuts can be reached and picked more easily. 

Read More