Sowing The 'Erotic Seed' (Coco de Mer)

[Yithian]

Sewing the 'Erotic Seed'

Excitement as 'erotic' seed sprouts

Experts at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh are celebrating after successfully germinating the world's largest seed.
The Coco de Mer - which is produced by a palm tree found in the Seychelles - is as heavy as eight bags of sugar and notoriously difficult to cultivate.

Horticulturists in Edinburgh received the gift from the Victoria Botanic garden in the Seychelles in April.

Fiona Inches, who is responsible for growing the seed, said her team had hoped to see some results in about 18 months.

"Here we are four months down the line and we have got this emerging shoot, which is about 10 centimetres long at the moment," she told BBC Scotland.

She said this could reach four metres in length before it found a spot to develop roots and shoot.

If all goes well the new plant should put out its first leaf within a year.

It could produce fruit in 30 years' time and the palm could live for up to 300 years.

Closed environment

The seed, which weighs 16kg, is being cared for in a dark case in the garden's tropical propagation area.

"We are trying to simulate the climate in the Seychelles, so we are giving it a closed environment with temperatures of 25C," explained Ms Inches.

"We have covered it in moss to keep the humidity round the fruit."

Alan Bennell, the deputy director of public programmes, said the Coco de Mer was the biggest seed in the world.

"To get them to come to life is a matter of some very exclusive techniques of nurture, for which there is a great tribute to our horticulturists," he said.

For centuries the Coconut of the Sea - or Lodicea maldivica - was thought to be produced by a giant palm tree growing under the sea.

It was only ever found floating or washed up on beaches round the Indian Ocean.

In medieval times the seed was thought to possess aphrodisiac properties.

The creamy white meat was also revered as an antidote to poisons.

Mr Bennell described the seeds as "erotic and gross and wonderfully suggestive".

He said that the palm was only found growing naturally in two valleys in the Seychelles.

"You can imagine the sense of excitement that we are now nurturing it," he added.

The true origins of the Coco de Mer were not discovered until 1768, when Marion Dufresne found the palm it growing in deep valleys on Praslin.

The Valleé de Mai National Park was designated a World Heritage site in 1983.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3153327.stm
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[chris_in_LA]

Re: Sewing the 'Erotic Seed'

Fiona Inches, who is responsible for growing the seed, said her team had hoped to see some results in about 18 months.

Fiona Inches? :hmph:

 

[Pete Younger]

Wow they are big, aren't they.

 

[Yithian]

I find it interesting that they're not 'designed' for aquatic dispersal , becoming waterlogged and not viable. So what was the method of dispersal?

 

[Anonymous]

Up to some years ago, you could buy a coco de mer shell that had been hollowed out and the front hinged to make a useful, and exotic, storage space. We had one at home but never used it for stoarge, and one day, as a child I lifted the lid to look insideand came face to face with three HUGE cockroaches. I still freak out over that. Nowadays the plant and its fruit are a protected species and its illegial to export either. I believe this to protect the plants, which only produce seed rarely, and to stop other countries growing them commercially.

It is also said that overnight, the male coc de mer will uproot itself and walk over to fertilise the female. Any person who witnesses this is immediately turned into a bird, thus 'Bird Island' a tourist attraction, with very many original birds and foolish souls who stayed up overnight to try and watch the action, and are now, err.. birds.

The Seychelles also has a thornless rose bush, which, it is believed, an angel fell into from heaven once, and thereafter declared that the rose would be thornless. Possibly to protect future falling angels from injury.