Coconuts

[Biddlesby]

I was eating some coconut earlier, and I wondered; where is the seed? Since the coconut I presume is a nut, is the inner bit itself the seed? If so, where does the new shoot come from? I've never seen a coconut sapling.

I opened my coconut by smashing it on a rock, and the inner sphere with the white 'flesh' fell out neatly. I am told normally this needs to be scooped out.

I also couldn't see any evidence of the three 'eyes' that are usually on a coconut - is the commercial coconut a specially selected species or was I just being ignorant?

 

[Stuart]

the eyes look like this:

you will notice a ridge line running allong one side of the nut and stopping between two of the eyes. striking this ridge (hard!) causes the nut to crack open neatly into two halves.

but before you do this the third hole (if the ridge stops between the two eyes this would be the mouth) can be punchered with a sharpe point (the eyes cannot) and you can drink the fluid within

 

[match]

As you can see from this illustration - the coconut that we get in shops in this country actually IS the nut - just in an unripe state. The eyes are the sprouting points for it - and before it arrives in this country it is processed to remove the outer fibrous husk.

See http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph8.htm for more details.

 

[Ed]

An amazing tree all round. If you are ever spending time in the tropics you really should study this plant, and learn as much as you can from the local people.... the amount of uses it has is just phenomenal.


Ed

 

[george]

What we think of as coconut "meat" is not seen as fit to eat raw in many tropical countries and would generally only be processed for extracting oil. It is generally cut from the tree and eaten when the coconut is still very young and the meat is soft and jelly like and the hard inner shell hasn't developed. Once it has actually fallen from the tree then the shell will have hardened and developed into what we typically think of as a coconut, though still contained in the exocarp and mesocarp. Taking off this fibrous husk can be problematic and is best done with the use of a large pointed stake rather than your parang! I once spent a few days helping to de-husk several hundred of the things, I could barely work my fingers after the first day and by the third it felt like my arms had been amputated below the elbow!! these things are tough!.
A typical way of eating it is to cut off a section of the thick green exocarp and use it as a spoon to scoop out the jellylike inner "meat". When young they contain a substantial amount of liquid - around a pint or so and although it is possible to survive purely on the liquid and meat for a considerable amount of time, anything over about 4 coconuts a day will give you a pretty unpleasant case of the "runs"!

Like Ed says - a fantastic plant with thousands of uses

George

 

[Ahjno]

When a coconut is sprouting, you can still eat the inner parts - when not sprouting: "meat" - of it. This would be called "bread". IIRC it's a bit spongy .

 

[Goose]

Something I didnt know I didnt know!

 

[Biddlesby]

Thanks, answered all my questions .

*claps*