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BATS
AND THE COCONUT PALM |
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, scarcely needs a pictorial introduction. The tall, graceful palm with long leaf fronds growing on a South Sea island beach must be one of the most familiar images in the world.
Some writers record that the coconut palm is the most important tree in the world. Others say that it is among the ten most important trees in the world.
The coconut bats
Fujita lists four species of bats as pollinators of coconut palm flowers based on scientific research; the dawn bat, the small long-tongued fruit bat, the Marianas flying fox and the Seychelles flying fox. Other known pollinators of coconut flowers are insects and the wind.
Start and Marshall (1976) say " . . . it is clear that certain species such as Cocos nucifera and Mangifera spp. are not dependent upon bats for pollination. However E. spelaea (the dawn bat), being a bat of great dispersive powers, may play an important role in their biology by disseminating their pollen widely."
Small long-tongued bat
The coconut flowers and sheath
A new leaf and a new inflorescense in the axil of that leaf develop monthly after 6 to 10 years of coconut palm growth thus providing coconut fruits all year long. There are thousands of male flowers and perhaps 30 female flowers. Six to twelve of those female flowers will become mature coconuts, a development that takes one year.
Male and female coconut flowers develop inside a substantial sheath that can be from two to four feet long. The sturdy sheath material can be used to make shoes and caps and, imaginatively, helmets for soldiers. More practically, the sheath can also be used as a splint for a broken bone.
Coconut flower sheath and sprouting coconut
Before the flowers mature and the sheath splits open, if the tip of the sheath is accidently or purposely bent over it can exude up to a gallon of sweet juice known as "toddy". Racey and Nicoll (1984) say the Seychelles flying fox likes to partake of that juice. Refinement and distillation converts coconut sap toddy to arrack, a fiery spirituous drink.
Dawn bat
The coconut's viability during ocean journeys
Where the coconut palm first took root is not known. Some say it was the western coast of South America, some say it was in the coastal forests of the Philippines or Australia. Uncertainty reigns in part because some believe that the coconut does not have to depend on explorers and colonizers to extend its range from its original home.
A mature coconut may be able to journey for thousands of sea miles with its sprouting viability intact. A seaborne coconut drifted onto a Norwegian shore. When relocated to an appropriate climate, it readily sprouted.
However, a well-known Norwegian, Thor Heyerdahl, disputed the ability of the coconut to remain viable during a long ocean voyage unless carried in a boat and kept relatively dry. Heyerdahl took 200 coconuts on the Kon Tiki in 1947, half of which were below deck, washed by seawater. Those coconuts rotted. The coconuts on deck sprouted and remained healthy during the 101 day voyage. He believes that coconuts cannot colonize distant shores without man's assistance.
The oil palm threat to the coconut's commercial superiority and to rainforests
Coconut oil from the coconut meat, copra, has been the most valuable commercial product of the coconut palm but its top commercial standing has been eroded by the major commercial use of oil from the oil palm. A book, Trees of the World, published in 1977, says, regarding the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis): "The oil has a great similarity to olive oil and has more uses than coconut oil. And, as the fruits ripen in half the time of the coconut, palm plantations are being established in many countries beyond Africa."
Forty years later thousands of acres of rain forest have been destroyed and replaced by oil palm plantations. Reuters reported on 9 December 2006 that the chief of Uganda's National Authority resigned from his position. He opposed the licensing of a palm oil company whose plant and plantation installation would replace rainforest. Like the logging of rainforests, the oil palm plantation invasion seems to be an uncontrollable force.
The coconut as part of daily life for villagers in coconut palm lands
On an individual, family and village level, the coconut palm remains an important part of daily life.
Arising for the day, a man in coconut palm land, and indeed in many other parts of the world, could wash his face and hands with coconut oil-based soap, shampoo his hair with coconut oil based shampoo, shave with coconut oil based shaving cream and brush his teeth with coconut oil based toothpaste. Most likely it will only be in coconut palm lands that the toothpaste would be laid on a bit of frayed coconut palm root which acts as an effective toothbrush.
Our man is up before daylight and light from coconut oil fuels his lamp. He prepares his breakfast on a coconut charcoal or coconut shell fire. Breakfast coffee, which could be made from scorched coconut palm roots, is drunk in a carved coconut shell cup, whitened with coconut cream, his morning pipe has a coconut shell bowl. If he has a filter cigarette instead, it may have a coconut shell charcoal filter.
A tidy man, he gives the floors a good clean with a coconut leaf midrib broom, then steps out the door over a coconut leaf fibre mat and beneath a house gutter made from a hollowed-out section of coconut palm stem. He goes to a building made from coconut palm trunk wood which shelters his cows and feeds them meal cakes, the residue of converting copra, the coconut meat, into coconut oil.
He's off to check the fish traps and then a day of house painting. The fish traps are made of coconut leaf midribs and the house paint contains coconut oil. Perhaps after work our man in coconut palm land will laze about for a little line fishing from his coconut log raft. It is tethered onto shore with a coir fibre rope made from the fibres between the coconut husk and shell. The rope floats, won't rot in salt water and is springy, features which have made coir fibre ropes successful commercially.
Marianas flying fox
Thor Heyerdahl and the coconut palm
Before Kon Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl had earlier, more intimate experiences with coconut palms and coconuts.
In 1936 Thor Heyerdahl and his new bride travelled from Norway to Fatu-Hiva, an island in the Marquesas. Their journey from Tahiti to Fatu-Hiva was on a copra schooner and took three weeks. The trading schooner stopped at a number of islands to pick up sacks of the dried coconut meat, copra, and to bring corrugated iron and window glass, underclothing, and canned salmon, the much desired symbols of "culture", to the villagers.
The Heyerdahls lived on Fatu-Hiva for a year. They were recipients of many coconut palm gifts; food, drink and shelter, and learned quickly to respect the fruit's ability to harm humans and animals. On their first night, sleeping in a small tent tied to a coconut palm, they narrowly missed being hit by a ripe rugby ball sized coconut which plummeted to the earth next to them. During that year they observed what an integral part the coconut palm and its fruit played in the life of the island inhabitants.
Coconut medicine
Feeling poorly
from head to toe? There is a coconut folk remedy somewhere in the world to
treat your condition. Starting at the top, a coconut based medicine can treat:
earache
toothache
gingivitis
sore throat
asthma
colds,flu
bronchitis
cough
nausea
constipation
dysentery
lack of menstrual periods
uncontrolled menstrual bleeding
pregnancy
venereal diseases
Been in a fight or had an accident? A coconut folk remedy somewhere in the world can treat:
wounds
swelling
bruises
burns
References:
Duke, James A. 1983 Handbook of Energy Crops; http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Cocos_nucifera.html
Fujita, M.S. 1991. Flying Fox (Chiroptera:Pteropodidae) Pollination, Seed Dispersal, and Economic Importance: A Tabular Summary of Current Knowledge, Resource Publication No. 2, Bat Conservation International
Heyerdahl, Thor, 1950, Kon Tiki, George Allen & Unwin Ltd
Heyerdahl, Thor, 1974, Fatu-Hiva, Back to Nature, Penguin Books
Leathart, Scott (1977) Trees of the World, Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited
Lewington, Anna 1990. Plants for People, Natural History Museum Publication
Racey, P.A., Nicoll, M.E. (1984) Mammals of the Seychelles. (In) Biogeography and ecology of the Seychelles Islands. (D.R. Stoddart, ed.), Junk Press, Leiden.
Root, Waverley 1980. Food, Simon and Schuster, New York
Soundbites, New Scientist, Volume 192, No 2583/2584, 23/30 December 2006, page 8
Start, A.N., Marshall, A.G. (1976) Nectarivorous bats as pollinators of trees in West Malaysia (in) Tropical Trees (J. Burley and B.T. Styles, eds.) Linn. Soc. Symp. Series 2.
THE PLANT Family: Palmae (The Palm Family Species: Cocos nucifera |
THE BATS Dawn fruit bat (Eonycteris spelaea) |
Thank you to Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle, Founder and President, Bat Conservation International, Austin, Texas, for permission to use his photographs of the dawn bat, the Seychelles flying fox and the Marianas flying fox as guides to drawing the illustrations.http://www.batcon.org
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