According to a recent report published in the ‘The Hindustan Times’, a 125-year-old female double coconut tree-the only double coconut tree in India is dying.
The tree was planted by British in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden in Howrah near Kolkata.
About double coconut tree
- Double coconut also called as sea coconut or love nut belongs to genus Lodoicea of Palm family in the plant kingdom. The name for double coconut or love nut comes from the shape of the seed.
- Double-coconut trees are found only on two islands of the Seychelles.
- They were planted by the British in countries including India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
- It is the lone specimen planted by the British in India in 1894.
- They can live up to 1,200 years and bear the largest fruits (weighing up to 25 kg) and leaves in the entire plant kingdom.
- When the tree was 94 years old, it produced flowers for the first time. When we came to know it was a female plant, we started searching for a male .
- Pollen of the male flower were brought in from Royal Botanic Garden of Sri Lanka to artificially pollinate the plant in 2006. But the efforts failed.
- In 2013, scientist tried again with pollen from another male from Thailand. This time it worked and the tree bore fruits.
