663.000 Cocos L.

Fayaz, F. (2011) Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants Firefly Books, New Zealand

Description of the genus

Palms stems solitary, erect or ascending, often leaning; robust, unarmed; trunks with conspicuous nodal rings. Leaves sheath coarse, cloth-like, not forming crown shaft; petiole unarmed, base entire, lamina pinnate, unarmed; plication reduplicate, segments regularly arranged. Inflorescence axillary within crown of leaves; paniculate with 1 or 2 orders of branching, stiffly ascending; peduncular woody bract, beaked splitting abaxially. Flowers sessile, 3 free sepals; petals 3, valvate. Fruit drupes, strongly to obscurely 3 angled, smooth usually green, yellow or orange; mesocarp very fibrous, dry; endocarp thick, bony. Seeds 1 very large, hollow, fluid-filled, endosperm lining cavity of seed, oily.

Derivation of name: from the Portuguese word coco meaning head or skull after the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features.

Worldwide: 1 species native from Central Malesia to SW Pacific, now pan-tropical.

Mozambique: 1 cultivated taxon.

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Links to cultivated taxa    View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesContent
nucifera L.Description, Image

Other sources of information about Cocos:

Our websites:

Flora of Burundi: Cocos
Flora of Mozambique: Cocos
Flora of Zambia: cultivated Cocos
Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Cocos

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Cocos
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Cocos
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Cocos
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Cocos
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Cocos
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Cocos
JSTOR Plant Science: Cocos
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Cocos
Plants of the World Online: Cocos
Tropicos: Cocos
Wikipedia: Cocos

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave 2007-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Mozambique: Cultivated plants: genus page: Cocos.
https://www.mozambiqueflora.com/cult/genus.php?genus_id=1673, retrieved 14 October 2024

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