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Time for some palm readings: Swetha Sivakumar on the coconut tree

BySwetha Sivakumar
Jan 18, 2025 07:06 PM IST

It needs so much sunlight, it evolved to soar above competing canopy, fronds stretching out like solar panels. See how else it adapted to space, sand and sea.

I like to think of the coconut tree as a highly strategic thinker.

At Khao Sok National Park, Thailand. At full maturity, the coconut kernel is 50% water, 33% oil, some protein and carbs. But, also trapped within, is air. Because the fruit needs to be able to float. PREMIUM
At Khao Sok National Park, Thailand. At full maturity, the coconut kernel is 50% water, 33% oil, some protein and carbs. But, also trapped within, is air. Because the fruit needs to be able to float.

“How can I evolve over millions of years to ensure that I never risk extinction,” it likely pondered.

This would have been aeons ago; the world’s oldest coconut fossil, found in Gujarat, was dated to 37 million years before the present day.

Needing as much sunlight as it does, it evolved to grow mainly between the latitudes of 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south of the equator. Move a few miles in either direction and one will encounter few native coconut trees, and even fewer thriving ones.

The tree grows along coastlines with heavy rainfall, because it needs 100 to 150 litres of water a day, if it is to produce its heavy, nutrient-intensive fruit.

Its crown soars above any competing canopy, the better to soak up sunlight; its broad leaves stretch out like a leafy solar panel. The fruit itself grows so high, with a shell so hard and fibrous, that it is more or less off-limits to most animals.

In order to support fruit that is so heavy and large, and support it so high above the ground, the tree developed a network of adventitious roots that sprout directly from the base of the trunk, in the thousands, to anchor it firmly; and a flexible trunk with a strong lignin core that can also withstand fierce winds, storms and sometimes even tsunamis.

In these various ways, the tree protects and nourishes its precious offspring: the coconut.

This fruit starts out filled with liquid endosperm, or coconut water. The inner layer of its hard shell start out soft and gelatinous. Four to six months on, this too hardens into a firm, solid kernel. At full maturity, the kernel is 33% oil, 50% water, 5% protein, about 12% carbohydrates.

But, also trapped within, is air. Because the fruit needs to be able to float.

Carrying its precious endosperm, protected and secure, a coconut can survive more than 110 days at sea. Some have been found 5,000 km from their parent tree. This is how the species has colonised countless remote islands, over millions of years.

Once the fruit had reached a distant beach, it drops roots and, once again, is exactly where it needs to be.

All in all, the coconut does such a good job of protecting its contents that there seems to be literally no way to improve on the formula. The shell protects the nutrients and the delicate flavour of coconut water in ways that no factory-made packaging invented so far can match.

Companies have tried, over and over, hoping to dispense with the cumbersome natural packaging. The closest they have come is an expensive method called high-pressure processing (HPP), a non-thermal pasteurisation technique that extends coconut water shelf life to four months. That’s just a whisker more than the coconut manages, while bobbing about on open ocean.

Every element of the fruit and tree, of course, is famously useful. Its coir, fronds and shells are still used to make rope, mats, brooms, roofs, bowls and a range of other biodegradable essentials — some of which humans have been using since the Stone Age.

We’ve been so in awe of the tree that numerous tropical cultures come close to worshipping it. It features in island mythology and auspicious offerings to the sea; it is nicknamed the tree of life, of abundance, of heaven; the coconut is used in a range of religious rituals in India.

One man famously took things too far. In the early 1900s, a German named August Engelhardt founded a religion that worshipped coconuts and preached that humans should subsist solely on this fruit, which he considered divine. He moved to an island in Papua New Guinea with 15 followers to live out his “coco-gospel”. He died in his 40s, however, and his religion fell apart. There really can be too much of a good thing.

(To reach Swetha Sivakumar with questions or feedback, email upgrademyfood@gmail.com)

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