The coconut tree (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus Cocos.[1] The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut")[2] can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which botanically is a drupe, not a nut. The name comes from the old Portuguese word coco, meaning "head" or "skull", after the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features. They are ubiquitous in coastal tropical regions and are a cultural icon of the tropics.

The coconut has cultural and religious significance in certain societies, particularly in the Austronesian cultures of the Western Pacific where it features in their mythologies, songs, and oral traditions. The fall of its mature fruit has led to a preoccupation with death by coconut.[3][4] It also had ceremonial importance in pre-colonial animistic religions.[3][5] It has also acquired religious significance in South Asian cultures, where it is used in rituals of Hinduism. It forms the basis of wedding and worship rituals in Hinduism. It also plays a central role in the Coconut Religion founded in 1963 in Vietnam.


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Coconuts were first domesticated by the Austronesian peoples in Island Southeast Asia and were spread during the Neolithic via their seaborne migrations as far east as the Pacific Islands, and as far west as Madagascar and the Comoros. They played a critical role in the long sea voyages of Austronesians by providing a portable source of food and water, as well as providing building materials for Austronesian outrigger boats. Coconuts were also later spread in historic times along the coasts of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans by South Asian, Arab, and European sailors. Based on these separate introductions, coconut populations can still be divided into Pacific coconuts and Indo-Atlantic coconuts, respectively. Coconuts were introduced by Europeans to the Americas during the colonial era in the Columbian exchange, but there is evidence of a possible pre-Columbian introduction of Pacific coconuts to Panama by Austronesian sailors. The evolutionary origin of the coconut is under dispute, with theories stating that it may have evolved in Asia, South America, or Pacific islands.

Trees grow up to 30 metres (100 feet) tall and can yield up to 75 fruits per year, though fewer than 30 is more typical. Plants are intolerant to cold and prefer copious precipitation and full sunlight. Many insect pests and diseases affect the species and are a nuisance for commercial production. About 75% of the world's supply of coconuts is produced by Indonesia, the Philippines and India.

True-to-type dwarf varieties of Pacific coconuts have been cultivated by the Austronesian peoples since ancient times. These varieties were selected for slower growth, sweeter coconut water, and often brightly colored fruits.[11] Many modern varieties are also grown, including the Maypan, King, and Macapuno. These vary by the taste of the coconut water and color of the fruit, as well as other genetic factors.[12]

Coconut fruits have two distinctive forms depending onĀ  domestication. Wild coconuts feature an elongated triangular fruit with a thicker husk and a smaller amount of endosperm. These allow the fruits to be more buoyant and make it easier for them to lodge into sandy shorelines, making their shape ideal for ocean dispersal.[18][19][20]Domesticated Pacific coconuts, on the other hand, are rounded in shape with a thinner husk and a larger amount of endosperm. Domesticated coconuts also have more amounts of coconut water.[18][19][20]These two forms are referred to by the Samoan terms niu kafa for the elongated wild coconuts, and niu vai for the rounded domesticated Pacific coconuts.[18][19][20]

A full-sized coconut fruit weighs about 1.4 kilograms (3 pounds 1 ounce). Coconuts sold domestically in coconut-producing countries are typically not de-husked. Especially immature coconuts (6 to 8 months from flowering) are sold for coconut water and softer jelly-like coconut meat (known as "green coconuts", "young coconuts", or "water coconuts"), where the original coloration of the fruit is more aesthetically pleasing.[21][22]

Whole mature coconuts (11 to 13 months from flowering) sold for export, however, typically have the husk removed to reduce weight and volume for transport. This results in the naked coconut "shell" with three pores more familiar in countries where coconuts are not grown locally. De-husked coconuts typically weigh around 750 to 850 grams (1 lb 10 oz to 1 lb 14 oz). De-husked coconuts are also easier for consumers to open, but have a shorter postharvest storage life of around two to three weeks at temperatures of 12 to 15 C (54 to 59 F) or up to 2 months at 0 to 1.5 C (32.0 to 34.7 F). In comparison, mature coconuts with the husk intact can be stored for three to five months at normal room temperature .[21][22]

Further complicating measures to determine the evolutionary history of Cocos is the genetic diversity present within C. nucifera as well as its relatedness to other palms. Phylogenetic evidence supports the closest relatives of Cocos being either Syagrus or Attalea, both of which are found in South America. However, Cocos is not thought to be indigenous to South America, and the highest genetic diversity is present in Asian Cocos, indicating that at least the modern species Cocos nucifera is native to there. In addition, fossils of potential Cocos ancestors have been recovered from both Colombia and India. In order to resolve this enigma, a 2014 study proposed that the ancestors of Cocos had likely originated on the Caribbean coast of what is now Colombia, and during the Eocene the ancestral Cocos performed a long-distance dispersal across the Atlantic Ocean to North Africa. From here, island-hopping via coral atolls lining the Tethys Sea, potentially boosted by ocean currents at the time, would have proved crucial to dispersal, eventually allowing ancestral coconuts to reach India. The study contended that an adaptation to coral atolls would explain the prehistoric and modern distributions of Cocos, would have provided the necessary evolutionary pressures, and would account for morphological factors such as a thick husk to protect against ocean degradation and provide a moist medium in which to germinate on sparse atolls.[33]

The name coconut is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese word coco, meaning 'head' or 'skull' after the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features.[34][35][36][37] Coco and coconut apparently came from 1521 encounters by Portuguese and Spanish explorers with Pacific Islanders, with the coconut shell reminding them of a ghost or witch in Portuguese folklore called coco (also cca).[37][38] In the West it was originally called nux indica, a name used by Marco Polo in 1280 while in Sumatra. He took the term from the Arabs, who called it Ā  jawz hind, translating to 'Indian nut'.[39] Thenga, its Tamil/Malayalam name, was used in the detailed description of coconut found in Itinerario by Ludovico di Varthema published in 1510 and also in the later Hortus Indicus Malabaricus.[40]

Carl Linnaeus first wanted to name the coconut genus Coccus from latinizing the Portuguese word coco, because he saw works by other botanists in middle of the 17th century use the name as well. He consulted the catalogue Herbarium Amboinense by Georg Eberhard Rumphius where Rumphius said that coccus was a homonym of coccum and coccus from GreekĀ  kokkos meaning "grain"[41] or "berry", but Romans identified coccus with "kermes insects"; Rumphius preferred the word cocus as a replacement. However, the word cocus could also mean "cook" like coquus in Latin,[42] so Linnaeus chose Cocos directly from the Portuguese word coco instead.[43]

Modern genetic studies have identified the center of origin of coconuts as being the Central Indo-Pacific, the region between western Southeast Asia and Melanesia, where it shows greatest genetic diversity.[45][24][48][49] Their cultivation and spread was closely tied to the early migrations of the Austronesian peoples who carried coconuts as canoe plants to islands they settled.[48][49][50][51] The similarities of the local names in the Austronesian region is also cited as evidence that the plant originated in the region. For example, the Polynesian and Melanesian term niu; Tagalog and Chamorro term niyog; and the Malay word nyiur or nyior.[52][53] Other evidence for a Central Indo-Pacific origin is the native range of the coconut crab; and the higher amounts of C. nucifera-specific insect pests in the region (90%) in comparison to the Americas (20%), and Africa (4%).[5]

A study in 2011 identified two highly genetically differentiated subpopulations of coconuts, one originating from Island Southeast Asia (the Pacific group) and the other from the southern margins of the Indian subcontinent (the Indo-Atlantic group). The Pacific group is the only one to display clear genetic and phenotypic indications that they were domesticated; including dwarf habit, self-pollination, and the round "niu vai" fruit morphology with larger endosperm-to-husk ratios. The distribution of the Pacific coconuts correspond to regions settled by Austronesian voyagers indicating that its spread was largely the result of human introductions. It is most strikingly displayed in Madagascar, an island settled by Austronesian sailors at around 2000 to 1500 BP. The coconut populations on the island show genetic admixture between the two subpopulations indicating that Pacific coconuts were brought by the Austronesian settlers that later interbred with the local Indo-Atlantic coconuts.[49][50] ff782bc1db

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