Unlike the coconut palm, the coco de mer palm has separate male and female trees. A number of legends arose both about the nuts, and about the trees that produce them. According to Antonio Pigafetta and Georg Eberhard Rumphius, Malay people believed that the tree was also the home of the huge bird or bird-like creature Garuda (or Rukh of the Arabs). In the Maldives, any coco de mer nuts that were found in the ocean or on the beaches were supposed to be given to the king, and keeping a nut for yourself or selling it could have resulted in the death penalty. When Major General Charles George Gordon of the British Army landed on Vallée de Mai on the island of Praslin in the Seychelles in 1881, he was convinced he had found the biblical Garden of Eden. When a coco de mer fruit falls into the sea, it cannot float because of its great weight and density; instead it sinks to the bottom. Coco de Mer male tree. There it was gathered from the beaches and traded with other countries. Coco de mer male flower tree. Fond Ferdinand, Praslin Island Picture: Coco de mer tree (male) - Check out Tripadvisor members' 12,060 candid photos and videos. Lodoicea Maldivica nut or Sea coconut forest. The nature and origin of this extraordinary nut was mysterious, and the propagation of the tree was not understood. [4] In one of his books, Dr. Berthold Carl Seemann mentioned that many believed the nuts to be an antidote to all poisons. [2] However, Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor was able to purchase one of these nuts for 4,000 gold florins. As an artist in the Seychelles, the seed of a palm tree called the coco de mer or `coconut of the sea’ found in this idyllic cluster of islands of 93,000 people, never ceases to fascinate me. Photo credit: chaletsdanseforbans.blogspot.in. The name coco de mer is French, and means "coconut of the sea". And, unlike the more familiar fruit of the coconut tree, the coco de mer fruit is not adapted to disperse naturally by floating on the ocean water. Historically these floating "beautiful rumps" were collected and sold for a fortune in Arabia and in Europe. The butt-shaped nut came from the female tree while the male … Nut and tree of the coco de mer, a rare species of palm tree native to the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean, is the subject of various legends and lore. On mature individuals, the leaves are often fringed at the edges. At its crown is a mass of fronds, with leaf blades fanning out nearly five meters across. this Tree is still one family with the type of palm tree that is widely known. [4], New legends about the coco de mer came into existence after 1743, when the real coco de mer trees were discovered. Download this stock image: Coco de Mer (Lodoicea maldivica) male tree, Sea coconut, Double coconut, Fond Ferdinand Nature Reserve, Praslin, Seychelles - KWD2K8 from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors. Their appearance is particularly remarkable: the female fruit looks like the female sex organ, the male tree has a phallic inflorescence. Fond Ferdinand, Praslin Island Picture: Coco de mer tree (male) - Check out Tripadvisor members' 12,074 candid photos and videos. It takes 6-7 years for a fruit to mature and a further two years for it to germinate into a new plant. [10] General Gordon wrote: externally the coco-de-mer represents the belly and thighs, the true seat of carnal desires[11], It occurred to at least some of Gordon's readers that if coco de mer was really the forbidden fruit, Eve would have had a very hard time handing this gigantic fruit (which weighs 15–30 kg) to Adam. Photo credit: ViloWiki/Wikimedia. The coco de mer tree grows to 25 to 34 meters tall. Luís de Camões wrote: O'er lone Maldivia's islets grows the plant,beneath profoundest seas, of sov'reign might,whose pome of ev'ry Theriack is confest,by cunning leech[5] of antidotes the best [6], In 1769, Jean Duchemin sailed to Praslin, the second largest island in the Seychelles, on the ship L’Heureuse Marie. In addition to its size, the fruit of this palm also has a series of the uniqueness of the other, here are 5 unique facts about the coco de mer. Funny woman tourist with a male Lodoicea Maldivica nut, the palm with the largest walnut in the world. The Seychelles' Coco De Mer tree produces the largest seed of any plant. This is one of those few examples of how seed dispersal occurs by gravity alone. This is still reflected in its current scientific name, Lodoicea maldivica. The Coco de Mer is considered the most erotic fruit in the world. I have visited the Vallee de Mai many times in the past 20 years, but each time I go I learn something new. The male flowers are arranged in a catkin-like inflorescence up to 1 m long which continues to produce pollen over a ten-year period; one … The internal parts of the nut decay, and the gases that form inside the nut makes it buoyant causing the bare nut to rise up to the surface. A kind of coconut. It is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. ‘Male and Female Trees of the Coco de Mer in Praslin’ was created in 1883 by Marianne North in Naturalism style. The catkin is the male flower of the fruit, and it looks equally like a giant male phallus. Similar Footage See All. The coco de mer palm has separate male and female trees, unlike the coconut palm. Even today the pollination process of coco de mer is not fully understood, and this just adds to the allure of the palm. The nut of the coco de mer is very large (the largest seed in the plant kingdom) and is oddly shaped, being the shape and size of a woman's disembodied buttocks on one side, and a woman's belly and thighs on the other side. 1. The coco de mer (Lodoicea maldivica) has tall slender trunks that rise more than 30 meters above the ground. The Coco de Mer seeds became known as the 'coconuts of the sea.' The coco de mer palm has separate male and female trees, unlike the coconut palm. Coco de Mer palm tree with fruits; Coco de Mer palm tree; Woman trekking at Coco de Mer palm trees botanical garden. The dioecious coco de mer palm (Lodoicea maldivica) produces by far the largest seeds of any plant. Known as "Love Nuts," the seeds aren't just famous because of their size. No plant on the Seychelles island of Praslin evokes such emotional reactions as the Coco de Mer. They're famous because of their shape. The tree generally grows to 25–34 m tall. In the Victorian era, General Charles George Gordon, who visited the Seychelles in 1881, believed that the Vallée de Mai on the island of Praslin was the original Garden of Eden as described in the Bible, and that the coco de mer was the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Malay seamen had seen coco de mer nuts "falling upwards" from the sea bed, and so they had reasoned that these nuts must grow on underwater trees, in a forest at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Around 5,000 specimens are in the Vallée de Mai on the island of Praslin, an almost 20 hectare high valley that Unesco declared a World Heritage Site in 1983. The male inflorescence. © Amusing Planet, 2020. Many sailors had seen the nut rising up from the sea bed, and thought they grew on underwater trees, in a forest at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. When the fruit of a coco de mer falls into the sea, it cannot float because of its immense weight and density. Male trees have long phallic-looking catkins. The amazing coco de mer today holds five botanical records —(1) it produces the largest wild fruit, weighing up to 42 kg; (2) its seeds weighing up to 17.6 kg are the world's heaviest; (3) it produces the longest known cotyledon, up to four meters; (4) the female flowers are the largest of any palm, and (5) it is the most efficient plant known at recovering nutrients from moribund leaves. An ardent Christian cosmologist, Gordon saw the shape of coco de mer’s fruit and was positive that it was the forbidden fruit that Eve offered Adam. Get a round-up of all our stories published during the past week delivered to your email every Saturday. No need to register, buy now! The resemblance to human reproductive organs gave rise to a new folklore that on dark storm nights, when no one is looking, the trees uproot themselves and lock in passionate carnal embrace. Plant unique palm is known by the name coco de Mer, a palm tree super rare it has the fruit size is very large. In another similarly homosapien similarity, the Coco de Mer tree takes between 20 and 30 years to bear fruit, and a further seven years to fully mature, however, men may blush to be outdone by a plant as the female fruits grow up to 10 inches and males up to 12 inches in length. The African priests also believe that sometimes the coco de mer trees rose up above the ocean surface, and when this happened, the waves that the trees created did not allow any ship nearby to sail away and the helpless sailors were eaten by the Garuda.[2]. The coco-de-mer leaves hold remarkable lifespan of over 50 years, perhaps the longest lifespan of any leaf in the plant kingdom. The leaves have an interesting design – it is formed into a gigantic funnel. Their withered ends hang from the palm below the vibrant, healthy green crown. The Coco de Mer is considered the most erotic fruit in the world. However juveniles produce much longer petioles; up to 29' 6" (9 meters) or even 33 feet (10 meters). Fond Ferdinand Nature Reserve, near Anse Marie-Louise, Praslin, Seychelles. The palm it produces grows only in the Seychelles. According to the legend, male trees uproot themselves, and approach female trees. Find more prominent pieces of landscape at Wikiart.org – best visual art database. The coco de mer has been the stuff of mystery and legend, perhaps more than any other tree in the world. This belief gave the tree its name, “coco de mer”, which is French for "coconut of the sea". Fruits of coco de mer are developed only on female trees. Video: 52682008 All Rights Reserved. (Gerard Larose, STB) Photo License: CC-BY The coco de mer palm hasn’t yielded all of its secrets yet, though. New legends about the coco de mer came into existence after 1743, when the real coco de mer trees were discovered. Middle Eastern princes and even the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, offered a fortune for these rare treasures. Coco de mer fruit male at Vallee de Mai Nature Reserve in Praslin, Seychelles. The butt-shaped nut came from the female tree while the male flowers develop into very suggestive phallic-looking catkins. When a coco de mer fruit falls into the sea, it cannot float because of its great weight and density; instead it sinks to the bottom. Apparently the love-making trees are rather shy, and the legend has it that whoever sees the trees mating will die or go blind. Credit: Julius Silver under a GNU Free Documentation Licence So a Coco de Mer fruit is an original souvenir to bring home from the Seychelles – it looks, well, intruiging, to say the least. Introducing the Legendary Coco de Mer Palm of the Republic of Seychelles. It grows to 25-34 m tall. 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