মঙ্গলবার, ৭ জুলাই, ২০১৫
The coconut tree (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family).
It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos.[2] The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which, botanically, is a drupe, not a nut. The spelling cocoanut is an archaic form of the word.[3] The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning "head" or "skull", from the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features.[4]
The coconut is known for its great versatility as seen in the many uses of its different parts and found throughout the tropics and subtropics.[5] Coconuts are part of the daily diets of many people. Coconuts are different from any other fruits because they contain a large quantity of "water" and when immature they are known as tender-nuts or jelly-nuts and may be harvested for drinking. When mature, they still contain some water and can be used as seednuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell and coir from the fibrous husk. The endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, becoming the edible coconut "flesh".[6] When dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are commonly used in cooking and frying; coconut oil is also widely used in soaps and cosmetics. The clear liquid coconut water within is potable. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating. It also has cultural and religious significance in many societies that use it
Cocos nucifera is a large palm, growing up to 30 m (98 ft) tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m (13–20 ft) long, and pinnae 60–90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly, leaving the trunk smooth. Coconuts are generally classified into two general types: tall and dwarf.[7]
On very fertile land, a tall coconut palm tree can yield up to 75
fruits per year, but more often yields less than 30, mainly due to poor
cultural practices.[8][9][10]
Given proper care and growing conditions coconut palms produce their
first fruit in six to ten years, it takes 15 – 20 years to reach peak
production.[11]
A full-sized coconut weighs about 1.44 kg (3.2 lb). It takes around 6,000 full-grown coconuts to produce a tonne of copra.[13]
The coconut palm root system[15]
consists of an abundance of thin roots that grow outward from the plant
near the surface. Only a few of the roots penetrate deep into the soil
for stability. The type of root system is known as fibrous or
adventitious, and is a characteristic of grass species. Other types of
large trees produce a single downward-growing tap root with a number of
feeder roots growing from it.
Coconut palms continue to produce roots from the base of the stem throughout its life. The number of roots produced depends on the age of the tree and the environment, with more than 3,600 roots possible on a tree that's 60 to 70 years old.
Roots are usually less than about 3 inches in diameter and uniformly thick from the tree trunk to the root tip.
One of the earliest mentions of the coconut dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights story of Sinbad the Sailor; he is known to have bought and sold coconuts during his fifth voyage.[17] Tenga, its Malayalam and Tamil 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.[18] Even earlier, it was called nux indica, a name used by Marco Polo in 1280 while in Sumatra, taken from the Arabs who called it جوز هندي jawz hindī. Both names translate to "Indian nut".[19] In the earliest description of the coconut palm known, given by Cosmos of Alexandria in his Topographia Christiana written about 545 AD, there is a reference to the argell tree and its drupe.[18][20]
Historical evidence favors the European origin of the name "coconut", for no name is similar in any of the languages of India, where the Portuguese first found the fruit; and indeed Barbosa, Barros, and Garcia, in mentioning the Tamil/Malayalam name tenga, and Canarese narle, expressly say, "we call these fruits quoquos", "our people have given it the name of coco", and "that which we call coco, and the Malabars temga".
The OED states: "Portuguese and Spanish authors of the 16th c. agree in identifying the word with Portuguese and Spanish coco "grinning face, grin, grimace", also "bugbear, scarecrow", cognate with cocar "to grin, make a grimace"; the name being said to refer to the face-like appearance of the base of the shell, with its three holes. According to Losada, the name came from Portuguese explorers, the sailors of Vasco da Gama in India, who first brought them to Europe. The coconut shell reminded them of a ghost or witch in Portuguese folklore called coco (also côca).[21][22] The first known recorded usage of the term is 1555.[23][24]
The specific name nucifera is Latin for "nut-bearing".
The origin of the plant is the subject of debate.[26][27][28] O.F. Cook was one of the earliest modern researchers to draw conclusions about the location of origin of Cocos nucifera based on its current-day worldwide distribution.[29]
He hypothesized that the coconut originated in the Americas, based on
his belief that American coconut populations predated European contact
and because he considered pan-tropical distribution by ocean currents
improbable. Thor Heyerdahl
later used this hypothesis of the American origin of the coconut to
support his theory that the Pacific Islanders originated in South
America.[30] However, more evidence exists for an Indo-Pacific origin either around Melanesia and Malesia or the Indian Ocean.[26][27][28] The oldest fossils known of the modern coconut dating from the Eocene period from around 37 to 55 million years ago were found in Australia and India. However, older palm fossils such as some of nipa fruit have been found in the Americas.[28] Since 1978, the work on tracing the probable origin and dispersal of Cocos nucifera[31] has only recently been augmented by a publication on the germination rate of the coconut seednut [32] and another on the importance of the coral atoll ecosystem.[33]
Briefly, the coconut originated in the coral atoll ecosystem - without
human intervention - and required a thick husk and slow germination to
survive and disperse.
Among modern C. nucifera, two major types or variants: a thick-husked, angular fruit and a thin-husked, spherical fruit with a higher proportion of endosperm reflect a trend of cultivation in C. nucifera: the first coconuts were of the niu kafa type, with thick husks to protect the seed, an angular, highly ridged shape to promote buoyancy during ocean dispersal, and a pointed base that allowed fruits to dig into the sand, preventing them from being washed away during germination on a new island. As early human communities began to harvest coconuts for eating and planting, they (perhaps unintentionally) selected for a larger endosperm to husk ratio and a broader, spherical base, which rendered the fruit useful as a cup or bowl, thus creating the niu vai type. The decreased buoyancy and increased fragility of this spherical, thin-husked fruit would not matter for a species that had started to be dispersed by humans and grown in plantations. Harries’ adoption of the Polynesian terms niu kafa and niu vai has now passed into general scientific discourse, and his hypothesis is generally accepted.[35][36]
Variants of C. nucifera are also categorized as Tall (var. typical) or Dwarf (var. nana).[37] The two groups are genetically distinct, with the Dwarf variety showing a greater degree of artificial selection for ornamental traits and for early germination and fruiting.[31][38] The Tall variety is outcrossing while Dwarf palms are incrossing, which has led to a much greater degree of genetic diversity within the Tall group. It is believed that the Dwarf subgroup mutated from the Tall group under human selection pressure.[39]
Drift models based on wind and ocean currents have shown that coconuts could not have drifted across the Pacific unaided.[41] This provides some circumstantial evidence that Austronesian peoples carried coconuts across the ocean and that they could not have dispersed worldwide without human agency. More recently, genomic analysis of cultivated coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) has shed light on the movements of Austronesian peoples. By examining 10 microsatelite loci, researchers found two genetically distinct subpopulations of coconut—one originating in the Indian Ocean, the other in the Pacific Ocean. However, admixture, the transfer of genetic material, evidently occurred between the two populations. Given that coconuts are ideally suited for ocean dispersal, individuals from one population possibly could have floated to the other. However, the locations of the admixture events are limited to Madagascar and coastal east Africa, and exclude the Seychelles. This pattern coincides with the known trade routes of Austronesian sailors. Additionally, a genetically distinct subpopulation of coconut on the Pacific coast of Latin America has undergone a genetic bottleneck resulting from a founder effect; however, its ancestral population is the Pacific coconut. This, together with their use of the South American sweet potato, suggests that Austronesian peoples may have sailed as far east as the Americas.[42]
The coconut palm thrives on sandy soils and is highly tolerant of salinity.
It prefers areas with abundant sunlight and regular rainfall (1500 mm
to 2500 mm annually), which makes colonizing shorelines of the tropics
relatively straightforward.[45] Coconuts also need high humidity
(70–80%+) for optimum growth, which is why they are rarely seen in
areas with low humidity, like the southeastern Mediterranean or Andalusia (Spain),
even where temperatures are high enough (regularly above 24 °C or
75.2 °F). However, they can be found in humid areas with low annual
precipitation such as in Karachi, Pakistan, which receives only about 250 mm (9.84 in) of rainfall per year, but is consistently warm and humid.
Coconut palms require warm conditions for successful growth, and are intolerant of cold weather. Some seasonal variation is tolerated, with good growth where mean summer temperatures are between 28 and 37 °C (82 and 99 °F), and survival as long as winter temperatures are above 4–12 °C (39–54 °F); they will survive brief drops to 0 °C (32 °F). Severe frost is usually fatal, although they have been known to recover from temperatures of −4 °C (25 °F).[45] They may grow but not fruit properly in areas with insufficient warmth, such as Bermuda.
Brontispa longissima (coconut leaf beetle) feeds on young leaves, and damages both seedlings and mature coconut palms. In 2007, the Philippines imposed a quarantine in Metro Manila and 26 provinces to stop the spread of the pest and protect the $800 million Philippine coconut industry.[46]
The fruit may also be damaged by eriophyid coconut mites (Eriophyes guerreronis). This mite infests coconut plantations, and is devastating: it can destroy up to 90% of coconut production. The immature seeds are infested and desapped by larvae staying in the portion covered by the perianth of the immature seed; the seeds then drop off or survive deformed. Spraying with wettable sulfur 0.4% or with neem-based pesticides can give some relief, but is cumbersome and labor-intensive.
In Kerala (India), the main coconut pests are the coconut mite, the rhinoceros beetle, the red palm weevil and the coconut leaf caterpillar. Research on this topic has as of 2009 produced no results, and researchers from the Kerala Agricultural University and the Central Plantation Crop Research Institute, Kasaragode are still searching for a cure. The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kannur under Kerala Agricultural University has developed an innovative extension approach called compact area group approach (CAGA) to combat coconut mites.
The extent of cultivation in the tropics is threatening a number of habitats, such as mangroves; an example of such damage to an ecoregion is in the Petenes mangroves of the Yucatán.[48]
Various terms, such as copra and coir, are derived from the native Malayalam language. In Kerala, the coconut tree is called "Thengu" also termed as kalpa vriksham, which essentially means all parts of a coconut tree is useful some way or other.
The coconut cultivars grown in Oman are generally of the drought-resistant Indian "West Coast tall" (WC Tall) variety. Unlike the UAE, which grows mostly non-native dwarf or hybrid coconut cultivars imported from Florida for ornamental purposes, the slender, tall Omani coconut cultivars are relatively well-adapted to the Middle East's hot dry seasons, but need longer to reach maturity. The Middle East's hot, dry climate favors the development of coconut mites, which cause immature seed dropping and may cause brownish-gray discoloration on the coconut's outer green fiber.
The ancient coconut groves of Dhofar were mentioned by the medieval Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta in his writings, known as Al Rihla.[51] The annual rainy season known locally as Khareef or monsoon makes coconut cultivation easy on the Arabian east coast.
Coconut trees also are increasingly grown for decorative purposes along the coasts of the UAE and Saudi Arabia with the help of irrigation. The UAE has, however, imposed strict laws on mature coconut tree imports from other countries to reduce the spread of pests to other native palm trees, as the mixing of date and coconut trees poses a risk of cross-species palm pests, such as rhinoceros beetles and red palm weevils.[52] The artificial landscaping adopted in Florida may have been the cause for lethal yellowing, a viral coconut palm disease that leads to the death of the tree. It is spread by host insects, that thrive on heavy turf grasses. Therefore, heavy turf grass environments (beach resorts and golf courses) also pose a major threat to local coconut trees. Traditionally, dessert banana plants and local wild beach flora such as Scaevola taccada and Ipomoea pes-caprae were used as humidity-supplying green undergrowth for coconut trees, mixed with sea almond and sea hibiscus. Due to growing sedentary life styles and heavy-handed landscaping, there has been a decline in these traditional farming and soil-fixing techniques.
Coconut palms will grow from coastal Pinellas County and St. Petersburg southwards on Florida's west coast, and Melbourne southwards on Florida's east coast. The occasional coconut palm is seen north of these areas in favoured microclimates in Tampa and Clearwater, as well as around Cape Canaveral and Daytona Beach on the east coast. They reach fruiting maturity, but can be damaged or killed by the occasional winter freezes in these areas. They may also be grown in favoured microclimates in the Rio Grande Valley area of southern Texas near Brownsville, as well as along the upper northeast coast by Galveston Island, however more severe cold snaps keep them from producing viable fruit. While coconut palms flourish in southern Florida, rare cold snaps can injure coconut palms there, as well. Only the Florida Keys and the distant southern Atlantic coastlines near Miami provide safe havens from the cold for growing coconut palms on the mainland
copy right by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos.[2] The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which, botanically, is a drupe, not a nut. The spelling cocoanut is an archaic form of the word.[3] The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning "head" or "skull", from the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features.[4]
The coconut is known for its great versatility as seen in the many uses of its different parts and found throughout the tropics and subtropics.[5] Coconuts are part of the daily diets of many people. Coconuts are different from any other fruits because they contain a large quantity of "water" and when immature they are known as tender-nuts or jelly-nuts and may be harvested for drinking. When mature, they still contain some water and can be used as seednuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell and coir from the fibrous husk. The endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, becoming the edible coconut "flesh".[6] When dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are commonly used in cooking and frying; coconut oil is also widely used in soaps and cosmetics. The clear liquid coconut water within is potable. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating. It also has cultural and religious significance in many societies that use it
Plant
Fruit
Botanically, the coconut fruit is a drupe, not a true nut.[12] Like other fruits, it has three layers: the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp. The exocarp and mesocarp make up the "husk" of the coconut. Coconuts sold in the shops of nontropical countries often have had the exocarp (outermost layer) removed. The mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The shell has three germination pores (stoma) or "eyes" that are clearly visible on its outside surface once the husk is removed.A full-sized coconut weighs about 1.44 kg (3.2 lb). It takes around 6,000 full-grown coconuts to produce a tonne of copra.[13]
Roots
Unlike some other plants, the palm tree has neither a tap root nor root hairs, but has a fibrous root system.[14]The coconut palm root system[15]
consists of an abundance of thin roots that grow outward from the plant
near the surface. Only a few of the roots penetrate deep into the soil
for stability. The type of root system is known as fibrous or
adventitious, and is a characteristic of grass species. Other types of
large trees produce a single downward-growing tap root with a number of
feeder roots growing from it.Coconut palms continue to produce roots from the base of the stem throughout its life. The number of roots produced depends on the age of the tree and the environment, with more than 3,600 roots possible on a tree that's 60 to 70 years old.
Roots are usually less than about 3 inches in diameter and uniformly thick from the tree trunk to the root tip.
Inflorescence
The palm produces both the female and male flowers on the same inflorescence; thus, the palm is monoecious.[14] Other sources use the term polygamomonoecious.[16] The female flower is much larger than the male flower. Flowering occurs continuously. Coconut palms are believed to be largely cross-pollinated, although some[which?] dwarf varieties are self-pollinating.One of the earliest mentions of the coconut dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights story of Sinbad the Sailor; he is known to have bought and sold coconuts during his fifth voyage.[17] Tenga, its Malayalam and Tamil 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.[18] Even earlier, it was called nux indica, a name used by Marco Polo in 1280 while in Sumatra, taken from the Arabs who called it جوز هندي jawz hindī. Both names translate to "Indian nut".[19] In the earliest description of the coconut palm known, given by Cosmos of Alexandria in his Topographia Christiana written about 545 AD, there is a reference to the argell tree and its drupe.[18][20]
Historical evidence favors the European origin of the name "coconut", for no name is similar in any of the languages of India, where the Portuguese first found the fruit; and indeed Barbosa, Barros, and Garcia, in mentioning the Tamil/Malayalam name tenga, and Canarese narle, expressly say, "we call these fruits quoquos", "our people have given it the name of coco", and "that which we call coco, and the Malabars temga".
The OED states: "Portuguese and Spanish authors of the 16th c. agree in identifying the word with Portuguese and Spanish coco "grinning face, grin, grimace", also "bugbear, scarecrow", cognate with cocar "to grin, make a grimace"; the name being said to refer to the face-like appearance of the base of the shell, with its three holes. According to Losada, the name came from Portuguese explorers, the sailors of Vasco da Gama in India, who first brought them to Europe. The coconut shell reminded them of a ghost or witch in Portuguese folklore called coco (also côca).[21][22] The first known recorded usage of the term is 1555.[23][24]
The specific name nucifera is Latin for "nut-bearing".
Origin, domestication, and dispersal
Origin
The range of the natural habitat of the coconut palm tree delineated by the red line (based on information in Werth 1933,[25] slightly modified by Niklas Jonsson)
Domestication
Coconuts could not reach inland locations without human intervention (to carry seednuts, plant seedlings, etc.) and it was early germination on the palm (vivipary) that was important,[34] rather than increasing the number or size of the edible parts of a fruit that was already large enough. Human cultivation of the coconut selected, not for larger size, but for thinner husks and increased volume of endosperm, the solid “meat” or liquid “water” that provides the fruit its food value. Although these modifications for domestication would reduce the fruit’s ability to float, this ability would be irrelevant to a cultivated population.Among modern C. nucifera, two major types or variants: a thick-husked, angular fruit and a thin-husked, spherical fruit with a higher proportion of endosperm reflect a trend of cultivation in C. nucifera: the first coconuts were of the niu kafa type, with thick husks to protect the seed, an angular, highly ridged shape to promote buoyancy during ocean dispersal, and a pointed base that allowed fruits to dig into the sand, preventing them from being washed away during germination on a new island. As early human communities began to harvest coconuts for eating and planting, they (perhaps unintentionally) selected for a larger endosperm to husk ratio and a broader, spherical base, which rendered the fruit useful as a cup or bowl, thus creating the niu vai type. The decreased buoyancy and increased fragility of this spherical, thin-husked fruit would not matter for a species that had started to be dispersed by humans and grown in plantations. Harries’ adoption of the Polynesian terms niu kafa and niu vai has now passed into general scientific discourse, and his hypothesis is generally accepted.[35][36]
Variants of C. nucifera are also categorized as Tall (var. typical) or Dwarf (var. nana).[37] The two groups are genetically distinct, with the Dwarf variety showing a greater degree of artificial selection for ornamental traits and for early germination and fruiting.[31][38] The Tall variety is outcrossing while Dwarf palms are incrossing, which has led to a much greater degree of genetic diversity within the Tall group. It is believed that the Dwarf subgroup mutated from the Tall group under human selection pressure.[39]
Dispersal
Main article: Genomics of domestication
It is often cited that coconuts can travel 110 days, or 3,000 miles (4,800 km), by sea and still be able to germinate.[40] This figure has been questioned based on the extremely small sample size of the paper that makes this claim.[41] Thor Heyerdahl provides an alternative, and much shorter, estimate based on his first-hand experience crossing the Pacific Ocean on the raft Kon-Tiki:
“The nuts we had in baskets on deck remained edible and capable of
germinating the whole way to Polynesia. But we had laid about half among
the special provisions below deck, with the waves washing around them.
Every single one of these was ruined by the sea water. And no coconut
can float over the sea faster than a balsa raft moves with the wind
behind it."[30]
He also notes that several of the nuts began to germinate by the time
they had been ten weeks at sea, precluding an unassisted journey of 100
days or more. However, it is more than likely that the coconut variety
Heyerdahl chose for his long sea voyage was of the large, fleshy,
spherical niu vai type, which Harries observed to have a significantly shorter germination type and worse buoyancy than the uncultivated niu kafa type.[31]
Therefore Heyerdahl’s observations cannot be considered conclusive when
it comes to determining the independent dispersal ability of the
uncultivated coconut.Drift models based on wind and ocean currents have shown that coconuts could not have drifted across the Pacific unaided.[41] This provides some circumstantial evidence that Austronesian peoples carried coconuts across the ocean and that they could not have dispersed worldwide without human agency. More recently, genomic analysis of cultivated coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) has shed light on the movements of Austronesian peoples. By examining 10 microsatelite loci, researchers found two genetically distinct subpopulations of coconut—one originating in the Indian Ocean, the other in the Pacific Ocean. However, admixture, the transfer of genetic material, evidently occurred between the two populations. Given that coconuts are ideally suited for ocean dispersal, individuals from one population possibly could have floated to the other. However, the locations of the admixture events are limited to Madagascar and coastal east Africa, and exclude the Seychelles. This pattern coincides with the known trade routes of Austronesian sailors. Additionally, a genetically distinct subpopulation of coconut on the Pacific coast of Latin America has undergone a genetic bottleneck resulting from a founder effect; however, its ancestral population is the Pacific coconut. This, together with their use of the South American sweet potato, suggests that Austronesian peoples may have sailed as far east as the Americas.[42]
Distribution
The coconut has spread across much of the tropics, probably aided in many cases by seafaring people. Coconut fruit in the wild are light, buoyant and highly water resistant, and evolved to disperse significant distances via marine currents.[43] Specimens have been collected from the sea as far north as Norway.[44] In the Hawaiian Islands, the coconut is regarded as a Polynesian introduction, first brought to the islands by early Polynesian voyagers from their homelands in Oceania.[19] They have been found in the Caribbean and the Atlantic coasts of Africa and South America for less than 500 years, but evidence of their presence on the Pacific coast of South America predates Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas.[27] They are now almost ubiquitous between 26°N and 26°S except for the interiors of Africa and South America.Natural habitat
Coconut germinating on Black Sand Beach, Island of Hawaii
Coconut palms require warm conditions for successful growth, and are intolerant of cold weather. Some seasonal variation is tolerated, with good growth where mean summer temperatures are between 28 and 37 °C (82 and 99 °F), and survival as long as winter temperatures are above 4–12 °C (39–54 °F); they will survive brief drops to 0 °C (32 °F). Severe frost is usually fatal, although they have been known to recover from temperatures of −4 °C (25 °F).[45] They may grow but not fruit properly in areas with insufficient warmth, such as Bermuda.
Pests
The coconut palm is damaged by the larvae of many Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species which feed on it, including Batrachedra spp.: B. arenosella, B. atriloqua (feeds exclusively on C. nucifera), B. mathesoni (feeds exclusively on C. nucifera), and B. nuciferae.Brontispa longissima (coconut leaf beetle) feeds on young leaves, and damages both seedlings and mature coconut palms. In 2007, the Philippines imposed a quarantine in Metro Manila and 26 provinces to stop the spread of the pest and protect the $800 million Philippine coconut industry.[46]
The fruit may also be damaged by eriophyid coconut mites (Eriophyes guerreronis). This mite infests coconut plantations, and is devastating: it can destroy up to 90% of coconut production. The immature seeds are infested and desapped by larvae staying in the portion covered by the perianth of the immature seed; the seeds then drop off or survive deformed. Spraying with wettable sulfur 0.4% or with neem-based pesticides can give some relief, but is cumbersome and labor-intensive.
In Kerala (India), the main coconut pests are the coconut mite, the rhinoceros beetle, the red palm weevil and the coconut leaf caterpillar. Research on this topic has as of 2009 produced no results, and researchers from the Kerala Agricultural University and the Central Plantation Crop Research Institute, Kasaragode are still searching for a cure. The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kannur under Kerala Agricultural University has developed an innovative extension approach called compact area group approach (CAGA) to combat coconut mites.
Cultivation
Coconut palms are grown in more than 90 countries of the world, with a total production of 62 million tonnes per year.[47] Most of the world production is in tropical Asia. Coconut trees are very hard to establish in dry climates, and cannot grow there without frequent irrigation; in drought conditions, the new leaves do not open well, and older leaves may become desiccated; fruit also tends to be shed.[45]The extent of cultivation in the tropics is threatening a number of habitats, such as mangroves; an example of such damage to an ecoregion is in the Petenes mangroves of the Yucatán.[48]
Harvesting
In some parts of the world (Thailand and Malaysia), trained pig-tailed macaques are used to harvest coconuts. Training schools for pig-tailed macaques still exist both in southern Thailand and in the Malaysian state of Kelantan.[49] Competitions are held each year to find the fastest harvester.India
Traditional areas of coconut cultivation in India are the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal and the islands of Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar. Four southern states combined account for almost 92% of the total production in the country: Kerala (45.22%), Tamil Nadu (26.56%), Karnataka (10.85%), and Andhra Pradesh (8.93%).[50] Other states, such as Goa, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, and those in the northeast (Tripura and Assam) account for the remaining 8.44%. Kerala, which has the largest number of coconut trees, is famous for its coconut-based products—coconut water, copra, coconut oil, coconut cake (also called coconut meal, copra cake, or copra meal), coconut toddy, coconut shell-based products, coconut wood-based products, coconut leaves, and coir pith.Various terms, such as copra and coir, are derived from the native Malayalam language. In Kerala, the coconut tree is called "Thengu" also termed as kalpa vriksham, which essentially means all parts of a coconut tree is useful some way or other.
Maldives
The coconut is the national tree of the Maldives and is considered the most important plant in the country. A coconut tree is also included in the country's national emblem or coat of arms. Coconut trees are grown on all the islands. Before modern construction methods were introduced, coconut leaves were used as roofing material for many houses in the islands, while coconut timber was used to build houses and boats.Middle East
The main coconut-producing area in the Middle East is the Dhofar region of Oman, but they can be grown all along the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and Red Sea coasts, because these seas are tropical and provide enough humidity (through seawater evaporation) for coconut trees to grow. The young coconut plants need to be nursed and irrigated with drip pipes until they are old enough (stem bulb development) to be irrigated with brackish water or seawater alone, after which they can be replanted on the beaches. In particular, the area around Salalah maintains large coconut plantations similar to those found across the Arabian Sea in Kerala. The reasons why coconut are cultivated only in Yemen's Al Mahrah and Hadramaut governorates and in the Sultanate of Oman, but not in other suitable areas in the Arabian Peninsula, may originate from the fact that Oman and Hadramaut had long dhow trade relations with Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Africa and Zanzibar, as well as southern India and China. Omani people needed the coir rope from the coconut fiber to stitch together their traditional high seas-going dhow vessels in which nails were never used. The 'know how' of coconut cultivation and necessary soil fixation and irrigation may have found its way into Omani, Hadrami and Al-Mahra culture by people who returned from those overseas areas.The coconut cultivars grown in Oman are generally of the drought-resistant Indian "West Coast tall" (WC Tall) variety. Unlike the UAE, which grows mostly non-native dwarf or hybrid coconut cultivars imported from Florida for ornamental purposes, the slender, tall Omani coconut cultivars are relatively well-adapted to the Middle East's hot dry seasons, but need longer to reach maturity. The Middle East's hot, dry climate favors the development of coconut mites, which cause immature seed dropping and may cause brownish-gray discoloration on the coconut's outer green fiber.
The ancient coconut groves of Dhofar were mentioned by the medieval Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta in his writings, known as Al Rihla.[51] The annual rainy season known locally as Khareef or monsoon makes coconut cultivation easy on the Arabian east coast.
Coconut trees also are increasingly grown for decorative purposes along the coasts of the UAE and Saudi Arabia with the help of irrigation. The UAE has, however, imposed strict laws on mature coconut tree imports from other countries to reduce the spread of pests to other native palm trees, as the mixing of date and coconut trees poses a risk of cross-species palm pests, such as rhinoceros beetles and red palm weevils.[52] The artificial landscaping adopted in Florida may have been the cause for lethal yellowing, a viral coconut palm disease that leads to the death of the tree. It is spread by host insects, that thrive on heavy turf grasses. Therefore, heavy turf grass environments (beach resorts and golf courses) also pose a major threat to local coconut trees. Traditionally, dessert banana plants and local wild beach flora such as Scaevola taccada and Ipomoea pes-caprae were used as humidity-supplying green undergrowth for coconut trees, mixed with sea almond and sea hibiscus. Due to growing sedentary life styles and heavy-handed landscaping, there has been a decline in these traditional farming and soil-fixing techniques.
Sri Lanka
An early mention of the planting of coconuts is found in the Mahavamsa during the reign of Agrabodhi II around 589 AD.[18] Coconuts are common in the Sri Lankan diet and the main source of dietary fat.[53]United States
The only places in the United States where coconut palms can be grown and reproduced outdoors without irrigation are Hawaii, southern and central Florida,[54] and the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.Coconut palms will grow from coastal Pinellas County and St. Petersburg southwards on Florida's west coast, and Melbourne southwards on Florida's east coast. The occasional coconut palm is seen north of these areas in favoured microclimates in Tampa and Clearwater, as well as around Cape Canaveral and Daytona Beach on the east coast. They reach fruiting maturity, but can be damaged or killed by the occasional winter freezes in these areas. They may also be grown in favoured microclimates in the Rio Grande Valley area of southern Texas near Brownsville, as well as along the upper northeast coast by Galveston Island, however more severe cold snaps keep them from producing viable fruit. While coconut palms flourish in southern Florida, rare cold snaps can injure coconut palms there, as well. Only the Florida Keys and the distant southern Atlantic coastlines near Miami provide safe havens from the cold for growing coconut palms on the mainland
copy right by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
