Coconut Tree / Niyog

@ Pawikan Bay we have about 80 Niyogs and a few dwarfs among them. Come and enjoy its produce!

What an amazing tree! Basically, everything can be harvested and put to use. The Cocos nucifera provides food, drinks, cosmetics, medicines, building materials, homeware, artifacts and fuel. Copra is an indispensable ingredient for delicious dishes; Coconut water (buko juice) tops any isotonic drink; fermented coconut sap (Tuba, Lambanog, Bahal, Bahalina) a distinguished treat throughout the Philippines.

The coconut is monoecious. Male and female flowers grow on the same tree. The female flower is much larger than the male flower. A Niyog procudes about 80 nuts per year. Like the peach it has three layers: the excarp, mesocarp, and endocarp. The exocarp is the glossy outer skin, usually yellow-green to yellow-brown in color. The mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The exocarp and the mesocarp make up the “husk” of the coconut, while the endocarp makes up the hard coconut “shell”. The interior of the endocarp is filled with endosperm (buko juice). Throughout maturity layers of endosperm grow to the coconut meat.

Growing up to 30 meters high (a typical church tower) they start to produce fruits in 6 – 10 years and can live for 60 – 100 years. It is simply amazing to witness how they even survive typhoons with their super heavy crowns far up in sky.