The coconut palm
๐ In short
The coconut palm is a tall, slender tree that grows on the shores of warm seas, swaying in the wind, with long feathery leaves at the top and bunches of big coconuts. In hot countries people call it โthe tree of a thousand usesโ.
๐คฉ Did you know?
- A coconut palm is between 12 and 30 meters tall.
- A coconut seed is between 20 and 30 centimeters long.
- One coconut palm can give dozens of coconuts a year.
- Fresh coconut water quenches thirst and has useful salts.
๐ Find out more
๐ An amazing fruit
A coconut has a thick, hairy outer husk, a hard brown shell under it, and inside white flesh we eat and sweet, refreshing water we drink.
๐ A sea traveler
Coconuts float, so if one falls into the sea it can travel with the waves for many weeks, then land on a faraway beach and sprout into a new palm!
๐ก A thousand uses
People make many things from the coconut palm: oil and milk from the flesh, rope and mats from the fibers, roofs from the leaves and bowls from the hard shell.
๐ฏ Skilled climbers
In some countries people skillfully climb the tall trunk to pick coconuts. In Thailand, monkeys have even been trained to help!
๐ธ More pictures
๐งฉ Test yourself
1 How does a coconut travel to faraway islands?
2 What's inside a coconut?
3 Which picture shows โThe coconut palmโ?
๐ณ Discover more
๐ท Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons
- Franz Eugen Kรถhler, Kรถhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen ยท Public domain
- tshrinivasan ยท CC BY-SA 3.0
- Wmpearl ยท Public domain
- James St. John ยท CC BY 2.0
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