Coconut palms with one to fourteen branches!

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Branched coconut palms!
The coconut palm generally consists of a unique trunk (or stem)topped with a broad crown of fronds and bunches. 
Except, of course, for the palms that are coconut freaks!


Curved coconut palms


Coconut palms
with two stems


Coconut palms
with three stems

Coconut palms
with four stems


Coconut palms 
with five stems


Coconut palms
with six stems

Coconut palms
with seven stems

Coconut palms 
with nine stems

 
Seven-in-one
from Cook Islands

The most branched !
14 stem…

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Coconut, from 1 to 5 eyes!


Dancing coconut eyes!
Normal coconut has three eyes, or two eyes and one mouth,according to people perception and cultures. No more, no less! Except, of course, if they are coconut freaks!


Three eyed
normal coconuts


Three eyed
but strange coconuts


One eyed coconut


Two eyed coconut


Three and half
eyed coconut


Four eyed coconut


Four and half
eyed coconut


Five eyed coconut



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The rarest horned coconut! with 3 horns

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This is the rarest form of horned coconut, and we hed the opportunity to collect and picture only one, in French Polynesia.


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So strange husk... Horned coconut!

Here are some global views of horned coconut...

The appearance of the coconut palm itself is normal, it is only in the inflorescences and bunches that the peculiarities become visible. Coconuts contain a normal white kernel and germinate normally. The taste of the kernel does not differ from that of ordinary coconut palms.


Inflorescence of an Indian horned coconut
photographed in 2012 by Dr Augustine Jerard Bosco.

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Young bunch of a horned coconut palm photographed in 2021
in French Polynesia by Dr R. Bourdeix

The coconut palms themselves are normal. Some of them are not very productive, but not all of them. In French Polynesia, we observed some horned coconut palms which annually produced a good hundred fairly large fruits.

The coconut palm producing 3-horned coconut
in French Polynesia




Coconut with one horn!

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A Natural square coconut from French Polynesia!

© R. Bourdeix, 2021

Here is one of the rarest coconut husk botanic freak, a very rare natural square coconut from French Polynesia! The coconut husk normally have three sides only, and this one have 4, that gives the husk a shape of square when cut.  Inside the coconut shell is round and have normal 3 eyes. I was collected in 2021 from an attoll of the Tumaotu archipelago.



There are also ways to create artificial square coconut by by human intervention, but this one is the only fully natural!