Lets learn more about food - Part 5 Coconuts - Information for kids

Imagine you are stuck on an island and all there is to eat are the coconuts high in the coconut trees?  Can you even eat it?  Is it good for you?  Lets learn more about this hairy, hard fruit.

In the tropics and the sub-tropic areas of Earth you will find the coconut palm trees growing naturally and these are the trees where you will find the coconuts.  The coconut trees can grow up to 30 meters tall with leaves that are 3-5 meters long.

The name coconut is derived from 16th century Portuguese sailors who thought the 3 small holes on the coconut shell resembled the human face so dubbed the fruit "coco" meaning "grinning face, grin, or grimace" The word nut was added in English later on. 

A coconut is actually not a nut, but a 'droop'.  Other fruits that are also in the 'droop family' are peaches. plums and cherries.  You can learn more about the differences here.

The coconuts and the palm has many uses

• Coconut water and coconut milk is not the same thing.  When the coconut is still young, it will contain a lot of water which you can drink directly from the fruit.  It is also used in sport drinks, since it contains sugar and can give a lot of energy.  It can also be used in the place of blood plasma, so during the world wars, coconut water were used for emergency transfusions in the tropics.
• Coconut milk is much higher in fat and lower in sugar and is used in some dishes like curries.  Coconut cream can also be made by using the milk.
• The fiber of the husk on the outside (the hair) is called 'coir' and it can be used to make rope, mats, brushes and stuffing for mattresses.
• The leaves can be used to make brooms or woven as baskets or dried and used for thatching of roofs.
• The white part on the inside of the coconut called the 'coconut meat' can be used in cooking or to eat is raw.  If it is dried it is called 'copra' and is used in baking and cooking of certain dishes like coconut cookies, curry and rice and macaroons.
• The wood from the trunk of the tree can be used to build houses and bridges.  The wood is very straight, strong and durable.

The coconut palm is grown in over 80 countries. The top 3 coconut producing countries in 2010 were the Philippines, Indonesia and India.  

The coconut is a seed that is too large to be carried from one place to another by animals or the wind, but it uses the ocean for dispersing itself.  The coconut can float and is carried by the waves to far away places where it will grow new coconut trees.

The coconut tree is the national tree of the Maldives and it is considered the most important plant on the island.

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