This coconut trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the palm the Philippines calls the tree of life: why a coconut is technically a drupe, how it got a name meaning 'skull', how Austronesian sailors carried it across two oceans, which countries grow most of the world's 65 million tonnes, and what copra, coir and toddy actually are. It also stops at coconut water and oil, the giant robber crab that climbs palms, macaques trained to harvest, the coco de mer's record seed, Mardi Gras coconuts, the piña colada, Bounty bars, lamingtons, macaroons, Malibu and the much-repeated myth that falling coconuts kill 150 people a year. Easy questions suit family and tiki-night quizzes; the harder ones on botany and production will test food and plant geeks. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Botanically, what kind of fruit is a coconut?
A drupe
Like a peach or an olive, it has a fleshy layer around a hard stone; the palm is the only living species in the genus Cocos.
Q 02The name coconut comes from a 16th-century Portuguese word meaning what?
Head or skull
The three indentations on the shell reminded sailors of a face, or of a folklore ghost called the coco.
Q 03Which three countries produced 73% of the world's 65.5 million tonnes of coconuts in 2024?
Indonesia, India and the Philippines
India averages more than 8,000 nuts per hectare per year.
Q 04What is dried coconut flesh called?
Copra
Oil and milk are pressed from it for cooking, soap and cosmetics.
Q 05What is the fibre from a coconut's husk, used in doormats and rope, called?
Coir
The name comes from Tamil and Malayalam words for cord or rope; brown coir comes from ripe nuts and white from unripe ones.
Q 06How many germination pores, or 'eyes', does a coconut shell have?
Three
They are remnants of the three carpels of the flower; the embryo pushes out through the functional one.
Q 07Roughly how tall can a coconut palm grow?
30 metres
Tall varieties fruit after 6 to 10 years and can live 60 to 100 years.
Q 08Up to how many coconuts can a single palm yield in a year?
75
Fewer than 30 is more typical, though new varieties may reach 150.
Q 09Which people domesticated the coconut and spread it by sea as far as Madagascar and the Pacific islands?
Austronesians
Coconuts in the Americas are closest to Philippine types, suggesting Austronesian sailors carried them there by 300 BCE.
Q 10Which explorer called the coconut nux indica while in Sumatra in 1280?
Marco Polo
That Latin name for 'Indian nut' stuck in the West until the Portuguese coco took over.
Q 11Which Swedish botanist formally described Cocos nucifera in Species Plantarum in 1753?
Carl Linnaeus
He also named the coconut crab Cancer latro, 'robber crab', in 1767.
Q 12According to urban legend, falling coconuts kill roughly how many people a year, supposedly more than sharks?
150
The figure grew out of a 1984 paper on coconut injuries; in reality sharks kill more people, around five a year.
Q 13Which animals have been trained for around 400 years to harvest coconuts in Thailand?
Pig-tailed macaques
Training schools still operate in southern Thailand and Kelantan, Malaysia; PETA objected in 2019.
Q 21The piña colada was proclaimed the official drink of which territory in 1978?
Puerto Rico
Coco López coconut cream, invented in 1954, made the modern recipe possible.
Q 22Which coconut-filled chocolate bar has been made by Mars since 1951?
Bounty
Forrest Mars Sr designed it in Slough, England.
Q 23The coco de mer, or double coconut, holds which botanical record?
Largest seed of any plant
It grows only on Praslin and Curieuse in the Seychelles.
Q 24The Australian lamington is thought to be named after a governor of which state?
Q 14The coconut crab, or robber crab, holds which record?
Largest living land arthropod
It can weigh 4.1 kg and climb palms; the story that it ate Amelia Earhart's remains is discredited.
Q 15Which country produced about 38% of the world's coconut oil in 2023?
Philippines
Some island nations run buses and generators on coconut biodiesel.
Q 16Below roughly what temperature does coconut oil turn into a white solid?
25 °C
Because it melts at about 24 °C, foods made with it are often hydrogenated for hot climates.
Q 17Coconut water is the clear liquid found inside which coconuts?
Young ones
It suspends the developing endosperm; companies have been sued for calling it 'super-hydrating'.
Q 18In Sanskrit the coconut palm is kalpa vriksha, meaning what?
The tree of the necessities of life
Malay calls it the tree of a thousand uses and Filipinos the tree of life.
Q 19Fresh or fermented palm sap, known as toddy across Asia, goes by what name in Filipino?
Tubâ
Elsewhere it is toddy; bamboo bridges link the tree canopies on some Philippine sap plantations.
Q 20Nata de coco, the chewy jelly made by fermenting coconut water, was invented in 1949 in which country?
Philippines
Chemist Teódula Kalaw África created it as an alternative to pineapple-based nata de piña.
Queensland
Most stories credit Lord Lamington's French chef Armand Galland, improvising for unexpected guests.
Q 25Macaroons, now often made with coconut, were originally made from what?
Ground almonds
The name traces back through French macaron to a Sicilian word related to macaroni.
Q 26Malibu, the coconut-flavoured rum liqueur, was made on which Caribbean island as of 2025?
Barbados
It was created in 1978 and first made in Curaçao before production moved.
Q 27Hand-decorated coconuts are prized Mardi Gras throws from which New Orleans krewe?
The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
A 1987 'coconut law' exempted coconuts handed from Zulu floats from insurance liability.
Q 28The traditional British fairground game in which players throw balls at coconuts is called what?
Coconut shy
Knock one off its stand and you keep it.
Q 29Pacific coconuts reached Mexico in the 16th century aboard which trade ships?
The Manila galleons
Meanwhile Portuguese ships carried Indian Ocean coconuts to West Africa, the Caribbean and Brazil.
Q 30Which phytoplasma disease is a major threat to plantations of the palm?
Lethal yellowing
Macapuno, by contrast, has jelly-like flesh filling the whole cavity and is used in desserts.