45 Fun Facts About Coconut

Botanically, what kind of fruit is a coconut?

A drupe, like a peach or olive, is a fruit with a fleshy layer around a hard stone; the coconut's fibrous husk is that layer and the shell is the stone.

The name coconut comes from Portuguese coco, a word for what?

A grimacing face: coco also meant a goblin used to scare children, and the three dark holes at the base were said to look like its eyes and mouth.

Which trio of countries grows most of the world's coconuts?

Indonesia, India and the Philippines grow about three-quarters of the world's coconuts, and a Marcos-era levy on Filipino coconut farmers helped pay for the lavish Coconut Palace.

What is dried coconut flesh called?

Copra is the dried kernel of the coconut; pressing it yields coconut oil for cooking, soap and cosmetics, and the leftover cake feeds livestock.

What is the fibre from a coconut's husk, used in doormats and rope, called?

Coir comes from a Malayalam word for cord, and because the fibre resists seawater, sailors long used it for ships' ropes and rigging.

Which sea creature carries coconut halves to use as shelter?

Veined octopus: it stacks the halves, carries them off and later fits them together as a hiding place, which scientists described as defensive tool use.

Coconut crabs can turn deadly to eat after feeding on which tree's fruit?

Sea mango: its kernels carry heart-poisoning cardenolides, and in New Caledonia two people died after eating crabs thought to have fed on the fruit.

Which future president sent a rescue message on a coconut?

John F. Kennedy: after his patrol boat sank in 1943, he scratched a message into a coconut, and his stranded crew was later rescued.

Which people domesticated the coconut and spread it by sea as far as Madagascar and the Pacific islands?

Austronesians: on long sea voyages coconuts gave them portable food and water.

Which explorer recorded the coconut as nux indica while in Sumatra?

Marco Polo, passing through Sumatra on his way home from China, recorded the coconut as nux indica, Latin for Indian nut, the name the West used until Portuguese coco displaced it.

Which Swedish scientist gave the coconut palm its scientific name, Cocos nucifera?

Carl Linnaeus named it in Species Plantarum, the 1753 book botanists later made the official starting point for plant names.

Peter Barss's 1984 report on falling coconuts later won which tongue-in-cheek award?

An Ig Nobel Prize: his Papua New Guinea study mentioned two anecdotal deaths, a figure later misquoted as 150 a year worldwide.

Which animals are trained in southern Thailand to climb palms and pick coconuts?

Pig-tailed macaques: in 2019 the animal-rights group PETA investigated the practice undercover and objected to it.

The coconut crab, or robber crab, holds which record?

The coconut crab is the largest living land arthropod, up to about 4 kg, and its mighty claws let it hunt hard-shelled prey such as other crabs.

Which Minangkabau dish simmers beef in coconut milk until almost dry?

Rendang: slow-cooking the beef until the spiced coconut milk dries out preserves it, and the drier it gets, the longer it keeps.

Why does coconut oil turn solid in a cool kitchen?

Saturated fat makes up most of the oil, which is why the WHO groups coconut oil with butter and lard among fats to limit.

Coconut water is harvested mainly from which coconuts?

Young ones: as a coconut ripens its water is gradually absorbed into the flesh, so drinking nuts are picked green and full-sized.

In India the coconut palm is called kalpa vriksha, after a mythical tree that does what?

Grants wishes: the palm earned the name because nearly every part of it is useful, from its water and oil to its leaves and wood.

Which strong spirit is distilled from fermented coconut-flower sap in Sri Lanka?

Arrack: tappers bruise the palm's unopened flower stalks to collect sweet sap, which ferments quickly and is then distilled into the spirit.

What is the name of the Hawaiian coconut pudding served at luaus?

Haupia is coconut cream traditionally set with pia, Polynesian arrowroot, though cooks today often use cornstarch instead.

The piña colada was proclaimed the official drink of which island in 1978?

Puerto Rico: San Juan's Caribe Hilton says its bartender created the drink in 1954, while the Barrachina restaurant claims a 1963 invention.

Which coconut-filled chocolate bar is made by Mars?

Bounty: in 2022 Mars trialled Celebrations tubs without it after finding that nearly 40% of people disliked the bar.

The coco de mer, or double coconut, holds which botanical record?

The coco de mer has the largest seed of any plant, and its nuts are too heavy for wind, animals or the sea to carry far.

The Australian lamington is thought to be named after a governor of which state?

Lord Lamington was Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901; the most repeated story has his French chef, Armand Galland, improvising the cake for unexpected guests.

Macaroons, now often made with coconut, were originally made from what?

Ground almonds: because macaroons need no flour or leavening, they became a popular Passover treat.

Malibu, the coconut-flavoured rum liqueur, was made on which Caribbean island as of 2025?

Barbados: in 2002 Diageo had to sell Malibu to Allied Domecq to win US antitrust approval for its Seagram deal.

Hand-decorated coconuts are the prized Mardi Gras throws of which New Orleans parade club?

Zulu: its early coconut throws were plain, straight off the tree, and painted, glittering ones later became the prized version.

The traditional British fairground game in which players throw balls at coconuts is called what?

A coconut shy sets coconuts on posts; knock one off with a thrown ball and you keep it, 'shy' being an old word for throwing.

Pacific coconuts reached Mexico in the 16th century aboard which ships?

The Manila galleons ran between Manila and Acapulco, and the know-how for tuba, a coconut palm wine still sold in western Mexico, came with them.

Which phytoplasma disease, spread by planthoppers, threatens coconut palms in Florida and the Caribbean?

Lethal yellowing: growers fight it by planting palms it can't readily infect, since sick palms rarely recover.

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, banged coconut halves imitate the sound of what?

Horses' hooves: the film's small budget ruled out real horses, so the knights mime riding while servants clop coconut halves.

In which religion is a coconut commonly offered in temple worship and at weddings?

Hinduism: at Narali Purnima, fishermen in Maharashtra throw coconuts into the sea as offerings to the sea god.

Vinegar made from fermented coconut sap is a hallmark of which Indian state's cuisine?

Goa: Portuguese rule made vinegar central to Goan cooking, giving it vindaloo from vinha d'alhos, a vinegar-and-garlic marinade.

Which Thai soup has a coconut-milk base flavoured with galangal and lemongrass?

Tom kha gai is a Thai chicken soup whose base is coconut milk simmered with galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.

In 2006, press reports wrongly blamed a coconut palm for which Rolling Stone's fall from a tree in Fiji?

Keith Richards: it was not a coconut palm, and the head injury led to brain surgery that delayed the band's tour.

Which future talk-show host sang on the 1950 hit 'I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts'?

Merv Griffin: after singing with Freddy Martin's orchestra, he went on to create the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

Where did Portuguese ships first bring Indian Ocean coconuts when they carried them into the Atlantic?

Coastal West Africa: the nuts came from Portuguese colonies in India, so Atlantic coconuts still carry an Indian genetic signature.

Which Malaysian dish is rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf?

Nasi lemak, Malaysia's national dish, is rice cooked in coconut milk with pandan leaf, served with sambal, fried anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and egg.

In the Polynesian story of Sina, the first coconut grows from what she buries?

An eel: in one Samoan telling it was the King of Fiji, who asked Sina to bury his head, saying that drinking from the tree's fruit would be kissing him.

Which Indian state's name is popularly explained as meaning 'land of coconuts'?

Kerala: over 2,000 years ago the emperor Ashoka's edicts named the Keralaputras of that coast among peoples he gave medical care.

Nata de coco, the chewy cubes in many fruit desserts, gets its jelly-like texture from what?

Bacteria: as they ferment coconut water they build a mat of cellulose, the gel that is then cut into chewy cubes.

The word toddy, as in a hot toddy, comes from a Hindi word for what?

Palm sap: English first used toddy for fermented palm sap and only later for spirits with hot water, sugar and spices.

Which chronicler of Magellan's voyage described coconuts as 'cochi' in 1521?

Antonio Pigafetta wrote that islanders ate the fruit they called cochi and anointed their bodies and hair with its oil.

Which coconut variety has soft, jelly-like flesh that fills almost the whole central cavity?

Macapuno: its nuts can't sprout, so growers raise new palms by culturing the embryos in a lab.

Kūlolo, a Hawaiian pudding, is made by baking coconut cream with which root?

Taro: in the Hawaiian creation story the first taro grew from a stillborn child's grave, making the plant the Hawaiian people's elder brother.