The Coconut Palm and How It Serves You
By “Awake!” correspondent in Fiji
REGARDLESS of where you may live, it is likely that the coconut palm in some way serves you. Some islanders depend upon it for life’s essentials—food, drink, housing, clothing—plus many other things. No wonder many call it the tree of life.
But in industrialized nations, too, coconut-palm products are finding widespread use—in factories, automobiles, kitchens, bathrooms. They are serving to make life safer and more pleasant.
In tropical lands there are over ten million acres of coconut-palm plantations, with some six hundred million trees. This does not include those grown in villages and elsewhere. Since a tree normally produces about fifty to a hundred nuts a year, an annual crop of 30 thousand million would be a conservative estimate, or about nine coconuts for every person on earth every year!
The Tree and Its Nut
A coconut palm usually begins to bear at around seven or eight years. But it is about the tenth to fifteenth year before it reaches full production. Thereafter it may bear up to a hundred nuts a year for more than fifty years. Then it starts to fail, and dies at the age of ninety or so.
The coconut palm needs plenty of water, sunshine and a temperature of at least 72° F. most of the year. Provided these conditions, it sends its gracefully curved, branchless trunk forty to a hundred feet into the air. Its top is crowned with featherlike leaves, flowers and developing nuts. The leaves may reach a length of twenty feet. They have a strong midrib from which long leaflets grow, giving the featherlike appearance.
The ripened nuts are large and have a smooth, light-colored rind. An island visitor looking up at them once asked, “What are those?”
When told, “Coconuts,” he said: “Oh, the ones we buy back home are much smaller, brown and rough textured.”
He was surprised to learn that the actual coconut is encased with a thick protective husk. This is usually removed when the nuts are exported. The nut itself averages about six to ten inches in diameter.
It takes about a year for a nut to ripen. But a tree at any moment may have nuts at all stages of development, from opening flower to ripe nut.
Although the coconut palm can grow inland, it has a remarkable affinity for the sea. The vast majority of them grow on islands, peninsulas and coasts. The islands of the Philippines and Indonesia are the major coconut producers, and the Fiji Islands rank tenth.
How It Serves
The ways in which the coconut palm serves man are almost endless. A delectable salad is prepared from its growing bud, located high in the tree’s top. This tightly packed bundle of cabbage-like leaves is about the size of a man’s forearm. It might be called the “heart,” for when it is cut or damaged the whole tree dies. So a salad made from it is an expensive treat!
The gigantic palm leaves are used in many ways. One authority says that with a hundred of them a spacious dwelling can be constructed. The thatch roof, walls, partitions between rooms, windows and doors are all made of the leaves, as well as baskets, mats, fans, brooms and other items used in the house. Clothing, such as skirts and hats, is also made from the leaves. And they can be utilized as torches and firewood.
A remarkable drink is obtained from the unopened flower buds. When a clump of them are bound tightly, cut and bent over into a container, they begin to drip steadily drops of sweet juice called toddy—several pints of it a day. When the liquid is permitted to ferment, it makes an alcoholic drink. Or it can be boiled down to produce a fine syrup to use on bread or pancakes. And if it is left a few weeks it becomes a good vinegar.
The unopened flowers are protected by a sheath of stiff, coarse fiber. This is an ideal material for use as a sieve or strainer. And it can also be fashioned into shoes, caps or even a kind of pressed helmet.
In five to six months the nut grows to full size, at which time it contains approximately two glassfuls of a remarkably cool, slightly aromatic, sweet-tasting “water.” What a refreshing drink it is! And it is good for one, possessing vitamins, minerals and about two tablespoons of sugar per nut. It is so wonderfully pure and sterile that it has been used in replacing body fluid in humans, and as a plasma volume expander.
When left to mature, the white nutmeat begins to form inside, becoming firm when the nut is ripe. It is indeed a rich taste treat! When finely grated and pressed, a thick white cream is produced that is used in making fish, meat and vegetables more tasty. And a fine oil used for cooking, lamp fuel and lotions is also obtained from the nutmeat.
The short, stiff fibers of the husks are called coir. From it rope, twine, mats, brooms, brushes, and mattress filling are made. Coir dust is turned into a humus for plants, and a wallboarding is also produced from it.
The coconut’s hard shell is useful in countless ways. Vases, brooches, earrings, necklaces, lampshades, toys, eating utensils, and numerous other items are fashioned from them. Half a shell makes a satisfactory bowl or glass.
Coconut-palm trunks, being highly resistant to termites, make fine supporting posts for houses. They also make sturdy stadium seats and bridges over culverts and creeks. The trunk yields a hard, dark-colored wood called “porcupine wood,” useful in building cabinets.
Even the roots are of use. A bit of root can be utilized as a toothbrush. And roots sometimes are used as a medicine for dysentery, a dye and a mouthwash.
But you may be thinking, ‘I haven’t even seen a real coconut palm. I can’t see that it serves me.’ Nevertheless, it probably does, and not only in shredded form as an ingredient of the candies, cakes and pies you may eat.
Coconut meat is dried to produce what is called copra—millions of tons of it a year. Then copra is processed for its marvelous oil, rich in glycerin and other complex things. This oil is found in the brake fluid of cars, in shampoos, lotions, lubricants, detergents, soaps, shaving creams, toothpastes, plastics, paints, ice cream, margarine, vegetable shortening, yes, in numerous things you probably use or eat.
The coconut palm is indeed a remarkable tree that no doubt serves you, wherever you may live.