Time for some palm readings

I like to think of the coconut tree as a highly strategic thinker. "How can I evolve over millions of years to ensure that I never risk extinction," it likely pondered.

- Swetha Sivakumar

I like to think of the coconut tree as a highly strategic thinker. "How can I evolve over millions of years to ensure that I never risk extinction," it likely pondered. This would have been aeons ago; the world's oldest coconut fossil, found in Gujarat, was dated to 37 million years before the present day.

Needing as much sunlight as it does, it evolved to grow mainly between the latitudes of 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south of the equator. Move a few miles in either direction and one will encounter few native coconut trees, and even fewer thriving ones.

The tree grows along coastlines with heavy rainfall, because it needs 100 to 150 litres of water a day, if it is to produce its heavy, nutrient-intensive fruit.

Its crown soars above any competing canopy, the better to soak up sunlight; its broad leaves stretch out like a leafy solar panel. The fruit itself grows so high, with a shell so hard and fibrous, that it is more or less off-limits to most animals.

In order to support fruit that is so heavy and large, and support it so high above the ground, the tree developed a network of adventitious roots that sprout directly from the base of the trunk, in the thousands, to anchor it firmly; and a flexible trunk with a strong lignin core that can also withstand fierce winds, storms and sometimes even tsunamis. In these various ways, the tree protects and nourishes its precious offspring: the coconut.

This fruit starts out filled with liquid endosperm, or coconut water. The inner layer of its hard shell starts out soft and gelatinous. Four to six months on, this too hardens into a firm, solid kernel. At full maturity, the kernel is 50% water, 33% oil, 5% protein, about 12% carbohydrates.

But, also trapped within, is air. Because the fruit needs to be able to float.