Double Coconut tree bears the largest seed known to science weighing around 25 kg

Scientists at the Indian Botanical Garden in West Bengal’s Howrah district have carried out artificial pollination of the only double coconut tree in India, which bears the largest seed known to science.

One of the rare and globally threatened species of palm, the double coconut (Lodoicea maldivica) tree was planted at the botanical garden in 1894 and the artificial pollination is a result of decades of work by scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI).

The tree took almost a hundred years to mature and when it started flowering, with the help of pollen from another tree in Thailand, the pollination process was done.

Double Coconut tree bears the largest seed known to science weighing around 25 kg

Longest surviving palm

• The Double Coconut tree not only bears the largest seed known to science weighing around 25 kg. This unique species is also the longest surviving palm which can live for as long as 1,000 years. The palm tree also bears the largest leaf among palms and one leaf can thatch a small hut.
• This species of palm is diecious (where male and female flowers are borne on different plants). 
• The palm tree is located in the large palm house of the Botanical Garden which has the largest collection of palms in South East Asia with around 110 palm species.
• This rare tree can be found in only two of the 115 Seychelles islands and is also called Coco de Mer (coconut of the sea).