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Cocos nucifera Essay

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Cocos nucifera

Cocos nucifera is the scientific name of the common coconut. This very tall palm tree is always an inviting symbol of the tropics. The plant is one of the most valuable plants to man. It is a primary source of food, drink, and shelter. In Sanskrit the coconut palm is called "kalpa vriksha", which is defined as "the tree which provides all the necessities of life."

Man can use every part of the coconut. The white nut-meat can be eaten raw or shredded and dried and used in most cooking recipes. A single coconut has as much protein as a quarter pound of beefsteak. Copra, the dried meat of the kernels, when crushed is the source of coconut oil. The husks, known as coir, is a short, coarse, elastic fibers used to make an …show more content…

The coconut palm was unquestionable spread by Austronesians through the Pacific, perhaps eventually to the Pacific coast of Central America, and westward to India and East Africa. In Western Melanesian charred fruits were sited back to 3000 BC. The coconut was an important tropical economic with its enormous range of uses.

Palmae, the palm family to which the coconut belongs to, is one of the oldest and most diverse of the plant families. Palms have many botanical characteristics such as woody trunk, in many species, perennial growth, leaves which are folded like a fan and the production of a single seed leaf which, along with grasses, lilies and other families classifies them as monocotyledons. There have been sixty other species under the genus Cocos, but the coconut palm stands by itself and is monotypic - meaning that within the genus Cocos only one species, nucifera, is recognized. Consequently, every coconut palm in the world is taxonomically the same species, which probably makes it most abundant single food tree in existence.

There have been many other palms that have been classified very closely to the coconut, which have confused it with other plethora of scientific and popular names. One example, the double coconut, also known as the Maldive nut, Lodoicea maldivia. This very large nut looks like two

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