Coco de mer
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| Missing image Coco-de-Mer-Frucht.jpeg The Seychelles nut The fruit of the Coco de mer | ||||||||||||
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The Coco de mer (Lodoicea maldivica), the sole member of the genus Lodoicea, is a palm tree that grows on the islands of Praslin and Curieuse in the Seychelles. Its fruit, referred to as the sea coconut, double coconut, coco fesse, or Seychelles nut, contains the largest seed in the plant kingdom.
The Seychelles nut is a sea-bean or drift seed, a seed designed to be dispersed by the sea. The sailors who first saw the nut floating in the sea imagined that it resembled a woman's disembodied buttocks. This fanciful association is reflected in one of the plant's archaic botanical names, Lodoicea callypige Comm. ex J. St.-Hil., in which callipyge is from Greek words meaning 'beautiful rump'. Other botanical names used in the past include Lodoicea sechellarum Labill. and Lodoicea sonneratii (Giseke) Baill.
Until the true source of nut was discovered in 1768, it was believed by many to grow on a mythical tree at the bottom of the sea; European nobles in the sixteenth century would often have the shells of these nuts cleaned and decorated with valuable jewels as collectibles for their private galleries. The coco de mer is now a rare protected species.
The name of the genus, Lodoicea, is derived from Lodoicus, the Latinised form of Louis, in honour of King Louis XV of France.
References
- www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/plants Lodoicea (http://www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/plants/magnoliophyta/magnoliophytina/liliopsida/arecaceae/lodoicea/) 2003-06-28
- Hutchinson, 1959, The Families of Flowering Plants (2nd ed.)de:Seychellenpalme
fr:Cocotier de mer pl:Lodoicja seszelska
Categories: Palms | Trees