Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Thailand helped plant rare “sea coconut” trees at Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, which cut open seven precious coconut costing up to 200,000 baht.
H.E. Arman Issetov joined Nong Nooch Director Kampol Tansajja at the Sept. 18 ceremony to halve the giant coconut with two concentric shells. Each half was the size of a monk’s alms bowl. The double-shelled coconut is so rare, it sells for 200,000 baht on the street. Single-shell sea coconuts go for half that.
Kampol and H.E. Arman Issetov jointly planted the first of the garden’s sea coconut seedlings in its World Palm Garden. The trees themselves cost 500,000 baht.
The sea coconut is a kind of palm native to the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean. Nong Nooch has 36 sea coconut trees in all.
The sea coconut got its name from ancient French sailors who found them floating in the ocean, far from any trees. The early navigators believed that the trees must be under the sea while others called them fruit that fell from heaven.
The largest sea coconuts ever found weigh 20 kilograms each. The fruit takes seven years to ripen. Trees take a year to root and won’t produce fruit for more than 20 years.
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