The coconut (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the palm family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus Cocos. can denote the whole coconut palm tree or the large hard fruit. Originally native to the Central Indo-Pacific, they are ubiquitous in coastal tropical regions.
The coconut tree provides food, fuel, cosmetics, folk medicine and building materials. The inner flesh of the mature fruit forms a regular part of the diets of many people in the tropics and subtropics. Coconut endosperm contains a large quantity of a liquid, "coconut water". Mature coconuts can be processed for oil and coconut milk from the flesh, charcoal from the hard shell, and coir from the fibrous husk. Dried coconut flesh is called copra, and the oil and milk derived from it are commonly used in cooking and in soaps and cosmetics. Sweet coconut sap can be made into drinks or fermented into palm wine or coconut vinegar. The hard shells, fibrous husks and long pinnate leaves are used to make products for furnishing and decoration.
The coconut has cultural and religious significance for Austronesian peoples, appearing in their mythologies, songs, and oral traditions. It has religious significance in South Asian cultures, where it is used in Hindu rituals including weddings and worship.
Cocos-like fossils have been recovered from New Zealand and India. Genetic studies identify the coconut's center of origin as the Central Indo-Pacific, where it has its greatest genetic diversity.<!--multiple scientific sources cited below!--> It was domesticated by Austronesian peoples in Island Southeast Asia and spread during the Neolithic via their seaborne migrations as far east as the Pacific Islands, and as far west as Madagascar. The species played a critical role in their long sea voyages by providing a portable source of food and water, as well as building materials for outrigger boats. Coconuts were spread much later along the coasts of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans by South Asian, Arab, and from the 16th century by European sailors. Based on these introductions, the species can be divided into Pacific and Indo-Atlantic types. The Indo-Atlantic type was introduced to the Americas during the colonial era in the Columbian exchange, while Austronesian sailors appear to have introduced Pacific coconuts to Panama in pre-Columbian times.
Trees can grow up to tall and can yield up to 75 fruits per year, though fewer than 30 is more typical. They are intolerant to cold and prefer copious precipitation and full sunlight. Many insect pests and diseases affect commercial production. In 2024, world production of coconuts was 65.5 million tonnes, with 73% of the total produced by Indonesia, India, and the Philippines.
Description
Cocos nucifera is a large palm, growing up to tall, with pinnate leaves long, and pinnae long; old leaves break away cleanly, leaving the trunk smooth. On fertile soil, a tall coconut palm tree produces around 80 fruits per year; new varieties may be able to yield as many as 150 per year. In India, average production is over 8,000 nuts per hectare per year. Tall varieties produce their first fruit in 6 to 10 years, and live for 60 to 100 years; dwarf varieties become productive more quickly, but have a shorter lifespan. It is possible that the species in addition occasionally has bisexual flowers. The female flower is much larger than the male flower. It takes 11 months from the opening of the female flowers to the time of harvest. Coconut palms are largely cross-pollinated, although most dwarf varieties are self-pollinating. Like other fruits, it has three layers: the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp. The exocarp is the glossy outer skin, usually yellow-green to yellow-brown in color. The mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The exocarp and the mesocarp make up the "husk" of the coconut, while the endocarp makes up the hard coconut "shell". The endocarp is around thick and has three distinctive germination pores (micropyles) on the distal end. Two of the pores are plugged (the "eyes"), while one is functional.
The interior of the endocarp is hollow and is lined with a thin brown seed coat, some thick. The endocarp is initially filled with a liquid endosperm (the coconut water). The liquid contains many free cell nuclei (it is multinucleate) dividing by mitosis, without cell boundaries. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the endocarp up to thick, starting at the far end. They eventually form the edible solid endosperm ("coconut meat") which hardens over time. The small cylindrical embryo is embedded in the solid endosperm directly below the functional pore. During germination, the embryo pushes out of the functional pore and forms a haustorium inside the central cavity. This absorbs the solid endosperm to nourish the seedling.
The fruits have two distinctive forms. Wild niu kafa coconuts feature an elongated triangular fruit with a thicker husk and a smaller amount of endosperm. These make the fruits more buoyant, ideal for ocean dispersal. Domesticated niu vai Pacific coconuts are rounded in shape with a thinner husk, more endosperm, and more coconut water.
thumb|upright|Fruit with husk partly removed, showing hard thin shell of [[endocarp (left), coir fibre of exocarp (right)]]
Coconuts are exported without husks; de-husked nuts from Côte d'Ivoire average around 575 grams, while de-husked nuts from the Dominican Republic average nearly 700 grams. Coconuts sold domestically in coconut-producing countries are typically not de-husked. 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 pleasing.
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, remnants of the three carpels of the flower, more familiar in countries where coconuts are not grown locally. De-husked coconuts are easier for consumers to open, but have a shorter postharvest storage life of around two to three weeks at temperatures of or up to 2 months at . In comparison, mature coconuts with a husk can be stored for three to five months at room temperature.
Taxonomy
Taxonomic history
The Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus formally described the species Cocos nucifera in his book Species Plantarum in 1753. The name is accepted by botanists. This apparently came from encounters in 1521 by Portuguese and Spanish explorers with Pacific Islanders, when the coconut shell reminded them of ghosts in Portuguese folklore called coco or côca. In the West, the fruit was originally called nux indica, a name used by Marco Polo in 1280 while in Sumatra. His term is a translation from the Arabic of the time, where it was called , "Indian nut". Thenga, its Tamil/Malayalam name, was used in the detailed description of coconut found in Itinerario by Ludovico di Varthema published in 1510 and in the later Hortus Indicus Malabaricus.
The specific name nucifera means "nut-bearing", from the Latin words (nut) and (bearing).
Origins
Fossil history
thumb|Fossil Cocos zeylandica from the [[Miocene of New Zealand, approximately the size of a strawberry at long|alt=Small blackened fossil]]
The vast majority of Cocos-like fossils have been recovered from only two regions in the world: New Zealand and west-central India. However, Cocos-like fossils are still putative, as they are difficult to identify. The earliest Cocos-like fossil to be found was C. zeylandica, a fossil species with small fruits, around × in size, from the Miocene (~23 to 5.3 million years ago) of New Zealand<!--in 1926-->. Since then, numerous other fossils of similar fruits of uncertain affinity have been found in New Zealand from the Eocene, Oligocene, and possibly the Holocene. In the Deccan Traps of west-central India, numerous fossils of Cocos-like fruits, leaves, and stems have been found. They include morphotaxa like Palmoxylon sundaran, Palmoxylon insignae, and Palmocarpon cocoides. Cocos-like fossils of fruits include Cocos intertrappeansis, Cocos pantii, and Cocos sahnii. Some have been tentatively identified as modern C. nucifera. These include two specimens named C. palaeonucifera and C. binoriensis, both dated by their authors to the Maastrichtian–Danian of the early Tertiary (70 to 62 million years ago). C. binoriensis has been claimed to be the earliest known fossil of C. nucifera.
Only two other regions have reported Cocos-like fossils, namely Australia and Colombia. In Australia, a Cocos-like fossil fruit, measuring , was recovered from the Chinchilla Sand Formation dated to the latest Pliocene or basal Pleistocene. Rigby (1995) assigned them to modern Cocos nucifera based on its size.
Phylogeny
A 2016 molecular phylogenomic analysis of the palms places the genus Cocos among the tribe Cocoseae:
Human dispersal
thumb|left|[[Catamarans allowed Austronesians to colonize the islands of the Indo-Pacific and introduce coconuts as they migrated.]]
Genetic studies identify the coconut's center of origin as the Central Indo-Pacific, where it has its greatest genetic diversity. Its cultivation and spread was closely tied to migrations of the Austronesian peoples who carried coconuts to the islands they settled. Linguistic, archaeological, and genetic evidence all points to domestication of Pacific coconuts by Austronesians in Southeast Asia during the Austronesian expansion (c. 3000 to 1500 BCE).