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Cocos nucifera L.

Synonym: Calappa nucifera (L.) Kuntze., Cocos indica Royle.

ARECACEAE

Local Names : തെങ്ങ്, Coconut Tree.

Flowering Period : Throughout the Year.

Distribution : Cultivated throughout the tropics

Uses: Nut edible, Oil yielding.

Exotic : No.

Erect trees with annular petiolar scars.  Leaves pinnatisect, 4-6 m long; leaflets reduplicate, base narrow, apex tapering.  Spadices interfoliar, panicled.  Spathe oblong, woody.  Flowers monoecious.  Male flowers: often paired.  Sepals ovate.  Petals ovate, woody, yellowish-brown.  Stamens 6; pistillode short, 3-fid.  Female flowers, basal, globose.  Perianth-lobes 6; woody; outer lobes broadly obovate.  Ovary 3-celled; ovule 1 per cell; style short.  Drupe ovoid or globose, trigonous; pericarp fibrous; endocarp stony.  Seed coherent with the endocarp.