Coconut

 As part of the Arecaceae (palm) family, a coconut tree is the only organism accepted in the genus Cocos. The word, ‘coconut’ refers to either the entire tree, the fruit, which is a drupe and not a nut, or the seed. The term comes from the root, coco defined as ‘skull’ or ‘head’. Coconuts are known for the oil and water they provide. When immature, it is harvested for the water. When it finally is mature, it is really good for the “flesh” of the coconut. That’s the edible wall around the fruit. When the flesh softens, it becomes copra. The oil and milk produced by the fruit is often used for cooking purposes.

Tree
Cocos nucifera is the name of the palm tree that grows coconuts. It can grow up to 98 pounds tall. It has leaves from 13-20 feet long. There are 2 types: tall and dwarf.

Fruit
Technically coconuts are drupes and not nuts. It has 3 layers in it:   exocarp,  mesocarp, and  endocarp. The exocarp and mesocarp make the husk. When coconuts are sold in non-tropical places, they usually are without the exocarp (the top layer). A coconut weighs about 3.2 pounds.

I nflorescence
The coconut palm tree produces flowers as well. Both male and female let out the same smell. The male is much smaller than the female flower.

Orgin
O.F. Cook became one of the first people to make conclusions about the coconut's orgin. His thought was that they came from the Americas, because America had more coconut sales than Europe did. Later, Thor Heyerdahl used this hypothesis to prove that his theory that the Pacific Islanders come from South America was correct. The oldest fossils of coconuts from back about 37 to 55 million years ago were found in Australia and India.