Читать книгу Coconut Palm Frond Weavng - William Goodloe - Страница 8

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Origin & History of the Coconut Palm

The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) is found growing on tropical shores all around the world. It is interesting to note that scholars do not know the origin of this tree, and there are differences of opinion concerning how the tree spread throughout the world. The Pacific coast of tropical America, New Zealand, Antarctica, Cocos Keeling Islands, and some islands of the Indian Ocean which no longer exist have been named by various authorities as the place of origin of the coconut palm.

Some authorities believe coconuts spread throughout the tropical world by drifting across oceans and washing ashore on the beach to start new coconut palm trees. Others say the coconut will not germinate after being in salt water for any length of time so it must have been spread by man. One purpose of the voyage of the Kon-Tiki was to prove that man could have carried the coconut from Peru to Polynesia.

In 1878 the coconut palm was brought to Florida. On January 9 of that year the Spanish barque Providencia sailed right up to the beach at Lake Worth (later to be known as Palm Beach). The ship was bound for Barcelona, Spain, from Havana, Cuba, with a cargo of 20,000 coconuts, hides, and wine.

The next few days during a long, noisy session of drinking wine, the captain offered the 20,000 coconuts to the settlers of Lake Worth. About 14,000 of these coconuts were planted from Boca Raton to Stuart, by the hiccuping pioneers.

When Henry Flagler came to Lake Worth in 1890 and saw the evidence of the Spanish party, he renamed Lake Worth "Palm Beach," and proceeded to make it world renowned.

The coconut palm will not survive in cold or dry places. It generally grows between latitudes 26 degrees north and 26 degrees south. This is confirmed in Florida where the northerly limit for the palm is near Palm Beach—latitude 26.6 degrees north. Coconut palms grew temporarily as far north as Jacksonville—latitude 30.4 degrees north; however, those north of the Palm Beach area were killed by cold weather in 1958.

The coconut matures on the tree in ten to twelve months. Under proper conditions a mature nut will begin to sprout in about four months. It takes about five years for the trunk to develop and three or more additional years for the tree to begin bearing coconuts.

The coconut palm grows approximately one frond per month and produces fifty or more coconuts per year. The bud sometimes grows at the rate of one inch per day. A coconut palm has twenty to thirty fronds (growing from twenty to twenty-five feet long in the tropics) with each frond having about a hundred pairs of leaves. Under ideal tropical conditions of temperature and rainfall a palm may attain the height of one hundred feet.

The coconut palm is the staff of life for many people living on tropical islands. They drink the coconut liquid, eat the meat, and extract oil (used in cooking, cosmetics, making soap, etc.) from the dried meat. The palm frond is used in making huts, hats, clothing, sandals, baskets, and mats. Sandals are also fashioned from coconut husks. They make rope, brushes, and mats from the fiber of the husk, commonly called coir. The sap is tapped from flower stalks and, when fresh, used as a drink (toddy), cooked into sugar (jaggery), fermented for palm wine, distilled for a fiery liquor (arrack), or aged into vinegar. The dried fronds and old tree trunks are used as fuel for fires.

Today there are very large coconut plantations in the tropical areas. The chief commercial products are copra (dried coconut meat, yielding oil), coir, charcoal, and desiccated coconut.

A typical large plantation may have thousands of cultivated acres and ship many tons of copra annually. Native workers can husk from 120 to 360 coconuts per hour.

The fresh coconut meat contains approximately 62 percent water, and when dried, less than 6 percent. Meat from 3,000 to 6,000 coconuts is needed to produce one ton of copra.

In summary, the coconut palm is the most useful of all palm trees. It has literally a thousand and one uses, for food, shelter, clothing, utility, household goods, handicrafts, and decorations.