To talk about the history of the
Coco De Mer we first have to go back
very, very far back in time to the age
of the super continent Gondwana.
(Steve)160 million years ago Madagascar
and India were one land mass, and then
they separated off from Gondwana and from
Africa and Antarctica and Australia.
When they broke off, they were moving
forward. And then about 65 million years
ago, India and Madagascar separated
from each other and that is when the Dhaka
Plateau was created or the western Ghats in India.
(Jared) Okay
(Steve) So, when the Western Ghats are
Connected to these same mountains
in Madagascar.
(Jared) Right.
(Steve) and there was another piece
which was separated from India
even later that is the core of the
Seychelles. And then, it has been slowly
sinking because it is getting more and
more dense through time. That is why the
island are made of granite.
(Jared) Right
(Steve) Cause you shouldn't have granite
islands. Granite only forms in the
center of continents under huge pressure
deep under ground. Where lava goes up and
solidifies before reaching the surface. So
it cannot form in an ocean and that is the
best evidence why.
(Jared) Yeah.
(Steve) and also the animal life and
plant life here too.
(Jared) Early palm trees that existed
on Gondwana were separated from each
other when it broke apart.
These plants followed a different
evolutionary path in their new
environments and this happened
100 million years before the
Seychelles broke off from the rest of
the Indian subcontinent.
For 56 million years those palm trees
lived in isolation in the Seychelles.
in this sort of environment, the trees
were relatively protected.
So although I'm sure they did change
over that huge period of time, the
Coco de Mer offers a glimpse of what the
the ancestors of modern palm trees
were like.
(Victorin) In the times of Gondwanaland,
they could have a bigger nut. Like
the Coco de Mer. Because the time
that the, the continents move,
the only part remain is the part
of Pralsin, Curieuse, Round Island,
Sainte Baie in this area where the
Coco de Mer grows. The rest of the
plateau is gone. Only this part can
remain on the earth. Nature kept that
like a souvenir for the humanity that
come. They see what the nut look like
in the old days.
(Jared) The Coco de Mer is the largest
nut in the world. And a possible reason
for that is know as Fosters Rule. This is
a phenomenon that occurs on Isolated
islands which causes large life forms to
evolve into smaller ones and small
life forms to evolve into bigger ones.
For instance on the Island of Malta,
fossils were found of adult elephants
that were only 3 feet tall. The reason
for this is that over time large
elephants, which would have needed more
food to survive, had a harder
time to find sustenance within the
confines of a small Island. So the larger
elephants would end up starving to death.
Smaller elephants, that needed less food,
They had a greater chance of survival. So,
over time large elephants evolved into
tiny ones that would have been more fit
for the environment they were in. On the
flip side, small animals would have less
predators on an island. So rodents that
normally use their small stature in order
to evade predation, they wouldn't need
that quality any more to survive. So, over
time larger rodents would become more
commonplace. This happens with plants as
well.
(Steve) The reason it grows the way it
does is because the Coco de Mer plans
that every seed will germinate. So It is
giving it's seed the highest possibility,
the most energy to sprout and grow
because there is nothing that will eat it.
there is no predition, there's no, there's
nothing. And so, if the seed is gonna fall
it wants that seed to survive. So, it's
just like humans we have, ya know like, a
few children they live a long time, we
put a lot of energy into it versus rats
which have hundreds and hundreds of
children and only a few will survive.
(Jared) Right it is like quality not quantity.
(Steve) Exactly, so that's the the goal
of the Coco de Mer.
(Jared) The Coco de Mer is going for
Quality and uh..yeah because of
this sort of situation where it is so
separate from everything else just in the
middle of the Indian ocean. It doesn't
have the same sort of issues that Coco de
Mer would have had like on Madagascar,
or India. so, without those sorts of
problems it can flourish here. But now it
doesn't flourish anywhere but here.
Okay, so now that the Seychelles has
formed and the Coco de Mer has grown,
Now what? Well up until the late 18th
century, the Islands were uninhabited.
However there are a few instances through
out history where a few people have set
foot on the islands. Traders from the
Middle East who peddled the expensive
Coco De Mer, may have known about
the Island. But of course, wanted
to keep that location to themselves.
Between 200 and 300 AD ships sailing
from Borneo may have landed on
the Seychelles before eventually making
their way to Madagascar. Which as an
aside but is interesting to note
that if you go to Madagascar today, you'll
actually see a huge Asian population
there. These are the descendants of those
people who went there back in 200 to
300 AD. Including my friend Eric here
who was my guide when I was in
Madagascar. These early settlers may
be part of the reason why today the
Coco de Mer is so popular in Malay
magic and herbal medicine out in that
part of the world. The Seychelles however
were not officially claimed by any
country until the French did in 1756.
They did this while navigating a faster
trade route between India and
Mauritius which was a French colony at
the time. At this point the islands did
not have any settlers and were still
being explored. It was on a separate
expedition about 10 years later when
the mystery of the Coco de Mer was
officially solved. And that was partially
in thanks to another rare species.
See that Tortoise over there? That is
actually one of the big reasons why
Coco de Mer kinda like, blew up.
Giant tortoises are actually all over
the world, but they are delicious
so naturally over time the species
got wiped out almost everywhere
except for very remote areas
like in the Seychelles and Galapagos.
They were Isolated there, protected
from humans. French colonists in
Mauritius made their way over to
the Seychelles. They saw that there were
Giant tortoises there. So, they went there
to get the giant tortoises in order to eat
them. One of the main people on that
crew was a man named Barre. He went
there originally to get the tortoises
to eat, but when he was doing it he
saw the Coco de Mer fruits on the ground
and when he saw that he just like freaked
out because he knew how much those
were worth, and he finally discovered
where those fruits were coming from.
They had been coming up the shore
for so many years, and people have
created a mythology around it but nobody
knew the actual source, and he found
the source. He knew the value of those
fruits so what he did was he filled his
ship full of them and took them back to
Mauritius. After that people knew where
the Coco de Mer came from. Up until then
it was something of legends.
Another important figure in the history
of the Coco de Mer is the British general
Charles George Gorden. A deeply
religious man and a devoted christian,
he was fond of trying to find the
locations of various holy sites mentioned
in the bible. His most popularly known
location is what he argued to be the site
of Jesus's crucifixion. Which he claimed
to be Skull Hill which was located near
the garden tomb in Jerusalem. Some
accept his theory even today, and
sometimes the site is even referred to
Gordan's Calvary. When he saw the Coco de
Mer, he believed that he discovered the
tree of knowledge. According to his
writings, the Seychelles were the remnants
of a sunken garden of Eden. Sunken, of
course, by the great flood mentioned in the bible.
In his writings he went on at length
trying to support his claim. He believed
that the topography of the Seychelles
was similar to how how Eden is explained
in various religious texts, and that if
you matched up certain rivers today with
ones that are mentioned in the bible that there was a connection.
In a biography, written by Gorden's
brother, a sampling of 14 pages from Gordan's writing
is given in order to support his theory.
Here is just a very small sampling.
Steven and I have Finally reached our
fruit holy land. The Vallee de Mei.
A nature preserve on Praslin with
the largest concentration of Coco de Mer
trees in the entire world.
It seems like people here have a
pretty good attitude towards, like
the sexual appearance of the fruit and
the male catkin as well. Look at the
bathrooms here.
This is the men's room. There is a guy
holding up the male part.
and this is the handicapped one
which is also very very funny. It is for
both men and women as you can see in the
wheel there.
Here is the women's room.
Yeah, a little note about Vallee de Mei is
that there are several trails. There is
one that tour guides will take you on and
and then there are a few others that are a little bit longer.
we choose to go on one of the longer
trails and we're alone. I haven't
seen another person around here
in what.. like, 30 minutes to an hour or
something? No one is taking this path.
So, if you come here it might be worth
your while to do the tour. Do the
guided tour. I hear it is really good.
we are doing our own cause we
did our own research before and we
also missed the tour.
(Steve) We talked to an expert
(Jared) and we talked to an expert so we
are not doing the
guided tour. We are doing this ourselves.
So I would actually recommend doing the
guided tour and then doing one of the
larger rings on your own if you want to
have like a meditative experience with
Coco de Mer. It is very peaceful
through here. I wouldn't want to be with
a big group. I would do that to get the
information and then come through again
and try to take it in yourself. If you
want to take photos or video. I would take
the tour to learn and the go through on
your own for like an hour or so to get
whatever you want. So, that is what we
are doing.
Here is a sign. Caution Falling Nuts!
The trail runs right through here. The
trees actually grow from the trail. As
you can see this one here, look at that
they are right up there. Right above your
head. And I can actually see that one
dangling, moving a little bit. It is a
real concern. That thing is ready to drop
too. Those are very very ripe. Just
Imagine that thing falling and hitting you
on the head. I mean that would probably kill you
Coco de Mer is not the only
thing that grows here. I see some
Artocarpus fruits. There's a nice
Jackfruit. To get an Idea how big the Coco
de Mer are, you can see there is some
Jackfruit.(loud Bird Chirping) Quiet Bird!
you can see there's ah, Woah!
(Steve) That is an endangered local parrot
(Jared) Oh Hey! An endangered local parrot is
interrupting my shot. (laughs) Well,
There's ah, You can see the Jackfruit
there right next to the Coco de Mer.
It shows scale. They are about the same
size, which is pretty Impressive! Those
Coco de Mer are huge.
(Steve) Jackfruit is the largest tree fruit.
(Jared) Yeah, Jackfruit is the largest
tree fruit. Coco de mer is the largest and
also the heaviest nut in the world.
So you got some Guinness world
record contenders right there, duking it
out for number 1.
It is pretty Impressive in this forest
right now. It feels like I'm walking
around in Jurassic Park. The trees are
huge. They are so much bigger than a
regular coconut tree. They're just
towering above me, making me feel like
a miniature person. I feel like a child
in here walking around. It's so tall.
and it is also very cool. There is so
much shade. They are such big shady trees
As I say that, I've hit a crack.
You can see how bright the sun is
with that beating down on me right now.
Right? So its.. You get a lot of coverage.
the lighting in here is very very odd,
Just because of how much shade these trees
produce. But, it is a super super hot day
out there, but in here.. it is probably
like 100 something degrees out there
but in here, it is maybe 60. It is
actually very comfortable walking around
in here just because of how shady it is.
But I stand here, and I feel like I am
gonna die. It is so hot out right now.
Ohhh, this feels nice!
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