Lodoicea maldivica

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Figure 1. John Price in the Vallee de Mai, beside a young plant.

Common Names:

Coco-de-Mer,
Double Cocount

Habitat:

Rainforest on two Seychelles islands, Praslin, and Curieuse.

Description:

A very large, unarmed, fan palm to about 25m tall. It is famed for its enormous seeds, which weigh about 20kg, and are the largest seeds of any plant. The plant is dioecious, which means it has male and female plants, and the seeds take up to seven years to mature on the plant.

General:

The seeds of this palm have long been famous, both for their size, as well as their resemblance to certain areas of the female anatomy.

Culture:

Tropical in its requirements, and very slow growing. Seed should be germinated in their final position, since they send down a sinker of about 4m long. Click here for more information on germination.

Figure 2. Immature fruit.

Figure 3. Mature fruit, showing relative size.

Figure 4. Young plant in the Darwin Botanic Gardens

Contributed by:

John and Jean Price (Figure 1-3) (from Palms & Cycads No. 59, Apr-Jun 1998.)
Gary Beaumont (Figure 4)

External Links:

Kew, PalmWeb, IUCN, JSTOR, Trebrown

Google, GoogleImages, Flickr, PalmTalk