coconut

The coconut palm can grow up to 24 m/80 ft in height. Ripe nuts are harvested by climbing the tree – sometimes monkeys are trained for the job – or allowing the nuts to fall naturally. The outer fibrous husk of the fruit is removed to reveal the nut.

Coconuts ripening on the palm. A versatile fruit with many uses, the coconut's outer husk of fibres is used to make matting and rope; the white flesh of the fruit can be eaten raw, or dried to produce copra from which coconut oil is extracted, which in turn is used in the manufacture of soaps and margarine.

A coconut begins to germinate after washing up on a beach. The outer husk of the coconut is very buoyant and seeds can be dispersed hundreds of kilometres by water.

Fruit of the coconut palm, which grows throughout the lowland tropics. The fruit has a large outer husk of fibres, which is removed and used to make coconut matting and ropes. Inside this is the nut which is exported to temperate countries. Its hard shell contains white flesh and clear coconut milk, both of which are tasty and nourishing. (Cocos nucifera, family Arecaceae.)

The white flesh of the coconut can be eaten fresh, or it can be dried before extracting the oil which makes up nearly two-thirds of it. The oil is used to make soap and margarine and in cooking; the remains are used in cattle feed.