COCO FACTS

The Origins and Evolution of the Coconut

Kelapa, cooreemboola, nariyal. Any of these sound familiar?

Thought not, but they’re just a few of the names given to what we know as the coconut. There are hundreds more because the coconut grows in a multitude of locations throughout the wet tropics between the latitudes 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the Equator.

Although presumed native to Malaysia, Polynesia and Southern Asia, the light, buoyant husk around the coconut meant that it floated easily, so it dispersed naturally via currents but it was also the ideal food for early migrating populations, reaching the limits of the South Pacific to the East and India to the West.

Find out where the English word ‘coconut’ came from in the How The Coconut Got Its Name section.

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