An iconic tropical palm of coastal shores worldwide, supplying food, drink, oil, fibre, and shelter to communities across the equatorial belt.
Where it grows
The coconut palm’s exact origin is debated, but most evidence points to the Indo-Pacific region between India and Melanesia. It is now ubiquitous on tropical beaches and atolls, its buoyant, salt-tolerant seeds (coconuts) floating across oceans to colonise new shores.
How to recognise it
A slender, sometimes leaning trunk topped by a crown of long pinnate fronds is the universal image of the tropics. Inflorescences emerge from the leaf bases and carry both male and female flowers. Each cluster bears a dozen or more large fibrous drupes — the coconuts — that take a year to mature.
Uses
Coconut is famously called the “tree of life” in the Philippines because nearly every part is useful: the water and flesh are food and drink, the oil is used in cooking and cosmetics, the dried meat (copra) yields commercial oil, the husk (coir) is woven into rope and mats, the leaves thatch roofs, and the trunk furnishes timber.
Conservation
The species itself is not threatened, but lethal yellowing disease and climate-driven sea-level rise are damaging plantations and atoll communities that depend on them.