Cocos nucifera L.
| Kannada Name : | Thengina mara |
| Common Name : | Coconut |
| Family Name : | Arecaceae |
| Scientific Name : | Cocos nucifera |
| Species Type : | Exotic |
| Phenology : | Evergreen |
| Conservation Status : | Not known |
| Flowering Period : | All year |
| Fruiting Period : | All year |
| Origin : | Southeast Asia |
Uses
It has many culinary uses all over the world. The roots are used as a dye, a mouthwash, and a folk medicine for diarrhea and dysentery. Coconut trunks are used for building small bridges and huts; they are preferred for their straightness, strength, and salt resistance. The leavesare used as brooms and for making baskets,etc.
Description
Large palm, erect, with annular petiolar scars, usually not straight, trunk usally swollen at the base, growing up to 30 m tall. A tuft of leaves arises at the apex, pinnate, leaflets 60–100 in number; leaflets opposite near the base, alternate and opposite near the tip, shiny green above, paler below, coriaceous, base narrow, apex tapering, acute, midrib prominent. Inflorescence an axillary panicle. Flowers unisexual; male flowers yellowish-brown, 8 mm long; female flowers woody. Fruit a drupe, up to 30 cm long, ovoid or globose, trigonous, pericarp fibrous, endocarp stony. Seed coherent with the endocarp. Endosperm white, mily fluid.
