Incredibly strange as the mythology and
history of this fruit is, the way that it
grows might just be the most intriguing
thing about it. let's follow the process
from seed to tree.
The Coco de mer, as I mentioned
is the largest and heaviest
nut in the world. Weighing as much as
40 pounds. So the first step is that one
of those fruits would fall on the ground
with a giant thud. You can even see how
far apart they are. (sound of a fruit falling)
So one of the fruits fell
Yeah, I heard that too.
You can see that big cluster there. I
can't even count them all. It is kinda
terrifying a little bit walking around
cause if one of those falls on you,
you're in trouble. We are actually
walking around and heard a big THUD
So I am guessing it does happen.
If you are in the wrong place at the
wrong time. It's curtains for you.
The parent tree has an incredible role
in the survival of it's children.
The leaves of the Coco de Mer, which can
grow to 30 feet long, serves several
functions. They collect fertilizer by way
of animal poop and dead plant material.
So when rain hits these leaves the debris
is funneled down on to the fallen fruit
providing water as well as the nutrients
that it needs to grow. The leaves also
block out the sun which removes some
of the competition of other plants that
might be growing and taking nutrients
away from the Coco de Mer.
In Nature Plants can spread their seeds
in a variety of ways. They may be
dispersed by the wind, by water, or
maybe spread by animals that will eat the
fruit and then poop out the seeds somewhere else.
Well, with the Coco de Mer we are faced
with a puzzle. These fruits are so heavy
that when the fruit falls it doesn't get
very far from the parent tree. There are
no animals big enough to spread these
seeds and although the shells have
historically have shown up on the shores
of many countries, those shells are the
hollowed out nuts that have already
germinated. A viable seed is far too heavy
to be spread by water. Those seeds would just sink.
How the Coco de Mer spreads
is that when the seed germinates a sharp
shoot will exit the shell and plunge down
into the earth. This shoot goes a distance
of several feet before popping out of the
ground and forming a new tree. That
gives the plant ample space so that it
is not competing for nutrients with the
parent tree or other seedlings.
One of the more mysterious things about
the Coco de Mer, you can see how these
trees are actually growing uphill.
(Victorin) You look up on the hill, you
see the Coco de Mer tree that is growing.
When you realize how they can go up the
hill, When the nut germinated they
germinated about a meter away from the nut
They Fell all surrounding the tree. The
one that fell down they produce
another tree. And the tree make the same
cycle. Every tree, female tree, that grows
makes the same cycle. In 25 years another
tree grows this and is starting to produce
the fruit. They Just open like this like
the one you see on the hill.
It is just like a mystery for a
long time. People would be like how
did that tree grow all the way up
there? It is because over the course
of many, many years these trees are
slowly climbing their way up.
The shoot that comes out of the nut,
acts kind of like umbilical cord. It will
continue to provide nutrients to the new
tree for the first 2 years of it's life.
Once the nut is hollowed out, the shell
is light enough to perhaps tumble
into the Ocean and maybe confuse
people in distant lands.
So, here is a young plant growing.
What's cool about this one is you can
actually see the coco de Mer at the bottom
there. It is actually germinating out of
that Coco de Mer. This one though, is not
too far. So, they said the shoots can go
3 to 6 feet. This one has gone straight up
Thinking of growing Coco De Mer in your
own back yard? Well, think again.
These trees are incredibly difficult to
to grow for a number of reasons.
For one, it can take as long as 50 years
for a nut to form into a fruiting tree.
If that doesn't deter you, well the Coco
de Mer is also dioecious, meaning that
there needs to be both a male and a female
tree for fruit to form. It takes between
11and 45 years to determine the sex of
a tree. So you would have to grow several
trees in order to increase the odds of
getting both sexes. And even then
after decades you might only still
get male trees.
Despite the difficulty of growing Coco de
Mer tree, they do exist outside of the
Seychelles. Though be it very, very, rare.
This is the Catkin for the male flowers.
and these little spots here are where the
flowers come out. So this is like
the inflorescence.
It's got these crazy little vibrant
flowers and the stalk looks purple in
color. So it has a really shocking appearance to it.
The female flowers look like small
cabbages and are pollinated by...
Well, that is also kind of a mystery.
One possibility is that they're pollinated
by the wind, but their pollination may
have something to do with little green
geckos that are often seen scrambling
around the trees.
Do you see that little
bit of green? That is a lizard. It is
walking all over those flowers.
so the appearance of this thing, if you
haven't figured it out, is like the female
form. It has the name Buttock Fruit. That
is what they call it in France, I believe,
and it also has the name Lady Fruit.
Sometimes it will actually get a little
tuft of hair here as well. Which creates
an even greater illusion.
As the female
tree produces the female looking fruit and
the male produces this very, very phallic
looking inflorescence here. There is a
mythology here that the male trees late
at night will actually bend and mate with
the female fruits. People say if you come
late at night, and you walk through the
forest you can see it but if you do see
that happen you will be cursed. Probably die.
The young catkins, when they are younger,
will kinda stick upright. so it is like a
little bit more obscene. Then as it gets
older they slowly start drooping.
just like humans.
Once pollinated the female trees
form the notoriously shaped 2 lobed
fruit. This one is probably at least 25
pounds. It is very, very heavy and you
can kinda feel it jiggling a little bit.
when you shake it. I don't know if that is
my imagination but it feels a little bit
liquidy in there. Which is kinda amazing.
You can see where it attaches right there.
it is very, very fibrous husk to it.
So this piece here is how it would attach
to the tree, like this. They grow in
clusters. I would be surprised if that
thing would not fall off if it had a full
cluster of fruit on it. Look at this tree.
You can see how many fruits it has on it.
It has what, at least 10 on it? so one
tree can produce quite a lot at any
given time. That's pretty impressive.
There is quite a lot of variety between
the Buttocks Fruit. It is a very full
round one. Kinda like the Marilyn Monroe
kind of figure. This is more like an
average figure. The one over here,
This one I feel looks like, looks like a
middle aged man.
Some of them as you can see, have a
little bit of a tuft to it, in the
appropriate place.
The trees can also produce a fruit
with a single, tripple, or quadruple lobe
as well. Although, those are much more rare.
You can see right there on the left hand
side, that is a 3 lobed Coco de Mer.
There is a single lobed Coco de Mer
up there.
The Seychelles receive incredibly strong
winds which would seem pretty precarious
for such a tall tree carrying so many
heavy nuts. A gust of wind could go though
and knock immature nuts off before they
are fully grown, or even knock an entire
tree down. Well, Evolution has an answer
to this problem as well. The Coco de Mer
trunk attaches to the earth with a bowl
like structure. Hundreds of tiny roots
connect to this bowl allowing it to act
kinda like a ball and socket joint.
With this kind of attachment, the tree
can actually bend with the wind allowing
it to resist damage. And if you believe
the rumors, it also helps the male and
female tree to get it on.
Here is the dead husk of a Coco de Mer.
The roots on it are pretty cool looking.
So if you ever wondered what a dead
Coco de Mer looks like on the inside
now is your lucky day. The answer is
brown. It looks brown on the inside.
Hello! so there is going to be 5 parts
in this very special episode on the
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