>Coconuts grew in their native Maldives, in India, and perhaps parts of western Africa and the Middle East
None of the countries mentioned have coconut as native, its originated from the Malay Archipelago (East Indies) area. The common name for coconut from Philippines to Hawaii across the Pacific islands is nyiur/niu, and most probably brought along to Polynesian islands by the early settlements who speaks Malayo-Polynesian or Austronesian languages.
Fun facts, coconut name is a misnomer and it's originated from the Portugese, one of the first European in contact with coconut who thought it's a form of nut but actually it belongs to drupe or stone fruit family [1]. Specifically coconut is from the palm family and its fruit is mainly the kernel. Oil palm has similar kernel fruit but it's native to Africa.
[1] Nightmare Fruit: How the Coconut Got Its Name.
I think the author of the article missed that this punchline talks about the giant floating seed of a coastal species of plant, that spreads itself by drifting out into the open sea, following the sea currents and eventually finding new islands to colonize. In other words: that coconuts do, in fact, migrate.
That's a hard case to make given the author of this article wrote not long after that
(They were also growing in western Central America, but had gotten there on their own, crossing the pacific like small, tasty boats without a swallow in sight.)
>Coconuts grew in their native Maldives, in India, and perhaps parts of western Africa and the Middle East
None of the countries mentioned have coconut as native, its originated from the Malay Archipelago (East Indies) area. The common name for coconut from Philippines to Hawaii across the Pacific islands is nyiur/niu, and most probably brought along to Polynesian islands by the early settlements who speaks Malayo-Polynesian or Austronesian languages.
Fun facts, coconut name is a misnomer and it's originated from the Portugese, one of the first European in contact with coconut who thought it's a form of nut but actually it belongs to drupe or stone fruit family [1]. Specifically coconut is from the palm family and its fruit is mainly the kernel. Oil palm has similar kernel fruit but it's native to Africa.
[1] Nightmare Fruit: How the Coconut Got Its Name.
https://medium.com/@sixtybolts/nightmare-fruit-how-the-cocon...
> “Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?”
I think the author of the article missed that this punchline talks about the giant floating seed of a coastal species of plant, that spreads itself by drifting out into the open sea, following the sea currents and eventually finding new islands to colonize. In other words: that coconuts do, in fact, migrate.
That's a hard case to make given the author of this article wrote not long after that