Tropicos | Name - !Cocos nucifera L.

!Cocos nucifera L.

Flora Data (Last Modified On 10/24/2012)

Species	COCOS NULCIFERA L.
PlaceOfPublication	Sp Pl. 1753.
Common	Coconut
Description	Erect but not usually straight, being curved or bent in various ways, some- times 30 m. tall, the bole seeming slender for the size of the crown: leaves bright green, very long, often 5-6 m. and more than 1 m. broad, the many single-rib- bed but striate glabrous pinnae 4-5 cm. broad; peti- ole short and stout: spadices 1-2 m. long, conspicuously forking in axils of the leaves, the prominent yel- low-white pointed caducous staminate flowers about 1 cm. long, pistillate flowers much larger: fruits few to several on a spadix, near the base of the branches, ob- tusely triangular, to 30 cm. or more long-and more than one-half as thick, the nut itself 10-12 cm. thick but variable in size and bearing at its base 3 large eyes representing locules of the ovary.
Distribution	Attributed to Asiatic tropics but now spontaneous and wild around the world and constituting the palm scenery on the littorals of many lands; extensively planted for the yield of edible fruits.
Note	The products are many, as dried flesh or copra and fiber of the husk or coir. There are numbers of horticultural varieties.
Specimen	CANAL ZONE: Chagres, Isthmus of Panama, Fendler 424.