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Manhattan, NY, where I can see a live Coco-De-Mer Palm tree? I know
there's one at a botannical garden in Miami, but I have to imagine there's one significantly closer somewhere. (This is mostly out of curiosity but also to see how good you guys are...)
It appears that Chicago is the closest place for you to see a living Coco-de-Mer palm tree!
Chicago is 1275 miles from NY, and it is 2060 miles, from New York to Miami. Therefore, Chicago?s Garfield Conservatory is 785 miles closer than Miami. (Give or take a few miles.) However, I was unable to locate a Coco-de-Mer palm tree in Miami. It sounds like you may know of one there, but if you?d like to see the real tree, then Chicago will save you some traveling time! http://www.hm-usa.com/distance/usa.html
The Garfield Conservatory has one of the largest Coco-de-Mer trees ?in captivity?.
?In 1960, during an expedition to Sir Lanka, Garfield Park horticulturist Robert Van Tress obtained a Double Coconut seed. Upon his return to Chicago, the seed was wrapped in a heating coil and it germinated where the plant grows in the Palm House.
Our Double Coconut is probably the largest such plant growing under glass in the world. Incidentally even after 40 years our Double Coconut is still too immature to determine whether it is male or female.? http://www.garfield-conservatory.org/gpca_news_3_copy.htm
Other USA locations: ?San Francisco's conservatory joins a handful in other cities, including Atlanta, Honolulu and St. Louis, hoping to grow a coco de mer palm.? These locations seem to have a seed pod, but have not yet grown a tree. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/05/26/BA12204.DTL&type=news
Singapore Botanical Gardens has some coco-de-mer palms
http://www.palmsoftheworld.com/lod.htm
According to this site, you can only see Coco-de-Mer trees, in Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, 1600 km. East of Africa. http://www.outofbounds.com/html/seychelles.html
This book, ?A Fragile Eden?, by Rosemary Wise, found on Amazon.com also states the Coco-de-Mer is found only in the Seychelles. If you have a free account (Credit card required to be on file) with Amazon.com, you can use the ?Search Inside the Book? feature to see the wuote here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0691048177/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-1326712-2390244#reader-page
This Audubon.org article also confirms the Seychelles as being the only location to have Coco-de-mer trees. http://magazine.audubon.org/travel/
About the Coco-de-Mer palm:
?Its fruit, weighing up to 22 kg and measuring up to 50 cm across, contains the double coconut, which is the largest seed in the world, and is so called because it has two lobes each resembling a coconut Coconut
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Palmales
Family: Arecaceae
Genus: Cocos
Species: nucifera
Binomial name
Cocos nucifera L.
The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.), is a member of the Family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only species classified in the genus Cocos. It is an example of a sea-bean or drift seed, which is a seed that is designed to be dispersed by the sea. It is also called the coco fesse, sea coconut and Seychelles nut. The sailors who first saw the double coconut floating in the sea imagined that it resembled a woman's disembodied buttocks and genitalia. This fanciful association is reflected in one of the plant's archaic botanical names, Lodoicea callypige Comm. ex J. St.-Hil., in which callipyge is from Greek words meaning 'beautiful rump'. Other botanical names used in the past include Lodoicea sechellarum Labill. and Lodoicea sonneratii (Giseke) Baill. Until the true source of nut was discovered in 1768 ? http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Coco%20de%20mer
Some good pictures of the palm tree in its natural habitat
http://www.pps.gov.sc/enviro/html/valle_de_mai.html
More information on the Coco-de-Mer palm:
http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org/plantcollections/archive_fall2002.htm
Hope this helps you! Enjoy the trip to the Windy City!
Regards,
crabcakes
Search Terms
Conservatories US Coco-de-Mer
Coco-de-mer palms US
Thank you for the stars and the tip! Both are appreciated.
I think you will enjoy using Google Answers...for more kicks, read through some previously answered questions. Many are not only informative, but entertaining as well! Regards,
crabcakes
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