Coconut, anyone?

[UTUSN]

So don't ask, but somehow somebody gave me a coconut. A real, wild coconut. I remembered seeing them in Mexico, on the trees, and how the dudes over there would slice, HACK off the top with a machete. I thought I remembered that the juice inside was milk colored, no recollection of how it or the fruit tastes.

So the problem became how to get inside this treasure! Home improvement tools! The drill really did the job--two holes, one for air pressure. Took longer than I expected, but the holes poured fine. And the liquid came out looking lemonade-like, not milk-like. Tasted woody-fruity.

It was tougher slicing the whole deal. First I tried hacking with a machete type knife. No go at all. So then it was the hack saw that did the job, in not more than about 3 minutes. Fine. So the taste of the fruit? At first it crunches and has the fibrous texture like the taste of commercial coconut candy. But at last it has a nutty taste. So it ends with nothing original to say: The name says it all.

[Lethe]

1. where are the seeds in a coconut?

just wondering

[UTUSN]

2. Uh, I do not know that. Aren't fruits the seeds themselves?

But speaking of introductions to unfamiliar plants or things, somebody in the '70s who had never seen an avocado before said, upon the thing being parted in half: "What an incredibly large seed!" Hilarious. But then, I thought using tools on the coconut was funny.

[Lethe]

3. usually the fruit is an enlarged ovary which contains the ovules

aka seeds.

any botanists enlighten us on this dilemma? i never saw a coconut seed before.

[lavenderdiva]

4. Mr. ld, who is a horticulturist, says the coconut is the seed.

that if you wanted a coconut tree, you would plant the coconut itself. When it comes off of the tree, the coconut, as we know it, is wrapped in a sort of husk. This husk is removed, or falls off, before you see the hairy outside shell that we recognize as a coconut.

[UTUSN]

5. Apparently my guess was more correct than I now want it to be

Ewww, I drank and ate endosperm!!!!!!!1



*******QUOTE*******

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph10.htm

The fruit of the coconut (Cocos nucifera) is technically a large, dry drupe (D) composed of a thin outer layer (exocarp), a thick, fibrous middle layer called a mesocarp (F), and a hard inner layer called an endocarp (E) that surrounds a large seed. The endocarp (A) contains three germination pores at one end, one of which the sprouting coconut palm grows through. The "meat" of the seed is endosperm tissue (B) and a small, cylindrical embryo is embedded in this nutritive tissue just opposite the functional germination pore. The seed is surrounded by an outer brown layer called the seed coat or testa. This is the brown material that adheres to the white "meat" or endosperm when it is removed from the endocarp shell. "Coconut water" (C) is multinucleate liquid endosperm that has not developed into solid tissue composed of cells. Copra comes from the meat of dried coconuts, while coir fibers are derived from the fibrous mesocarp.

********UNQUOTE*******

[Ediacara]

6. The whole thing is the seed

The outer green husk is the fruit.

[Duer 157099]

7. When we were kids and we got a coconut...

We'd first take a screwdriver and hammer it into the holes to drain the milk. Then, we'd wrap the coconut up in newspaper and go nuts (bananas? coconuts?) with the hammer, smashing the coconut into many smaller pieces.

Then we'd sit outside and pick the meat out and eat it.

YUM!

[UTUSN]

9. Smart technique. Unfortunately, I thought it was funny that I used

a drill and a hacksaw to do the job. After learning the biology, it turns out

THE JOKE'S ON ME!!!!!!1

Mastodon testicle!!!!!!111

[Floogeldy]

8. Um . . . that is not a coconut.

It is a Mastodon testicle.

EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :puke: