International Journal of Biology 2021; volume 11:9025

The evidence for native two main phenotypes of based on coconuts growing in clear morphological characteristics − niu Correspondence: André Leu, PO Box 800, kafa and niu vai.3 Mossman, , Australia. The wild-type, niu kafa, is well adapted Tel.: +61428459870. André Leu for spending many months at sea crossing E-mail: [email protected] International Director, Regeneration oceans to colonize new lands because of its Key words: Cocos nucifera L., Indo-Pacific International, Australia thicker husk with 3-sided angular shape species, management, niu kafa, niu vai. giving it a keel that can dig a trench into the sand so it can plant itself. It and its interme- Conflict of interest: The author declares no Abstract diate types colonized much of the tropical conflict of interest. Indo-Pacific. The fossil records show that The coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) is not they were in PNG 4,000 years ago and in Funding: The author self-funded this research. considered to be a native species in Vanuatu 5,000 years ago.3,4 Australia due to the belief that the early Research shows that coconuts had colo- Received for publication: 18 November 2020. European sea captains and botanists did not nized the of the Pacific as far out as Revision received: 24 November 2020. find coconut trees. A search of their reports Tahiti thousands of years before the arrival Accepted for publication: 27 November 2020. shows that they regularly found evidence of of humans. There is evidence that coconuts coconuts including green and fresh nuts. were in the Cook Islands over 8000 years Mature coconut trees were found from 1848 This work is licensed under a Creative ago, 7,000 years before the arrival of the Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 onwards. The indigenous knowledge, lin- 3 first humans. Niu kafa and intermediate International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). guistics and oral history about coconuts is varieties clearly had the ability to drift less evidence that they grew in Australia prior to than 100 kilometers from the Torres Straits ©Copyright: the Author(s), 2021 European colonization in 1788. A fossil to colonize coastal Australia. Licensee PAGEPress srl, Italy coconut and fossils of Cocos pollen are evi- On the other hand, niu vai is not as well International Journal of Plant Biology 2021; 12:9025 dence that they may have been in Australia suited for long distance drifting due to its doi:10.4081/pb.2021.9025only for millions of years. thinner husk. Its spread has been done pri- marily by humans who introduced it to new areas for cultivation because of its superior Jijamali was the name for a coconut nut qualities.4 Introduction usegrove on the southern bank of the Bloomfield River. Giving these groves their The coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) is a own unique names shows that the tradition- widespread tropical coastal Indo-Pacific al owners placed great significance on species that grows in conjunction with other Traditional owners, indigenous them; significant enough to name them as widespread coastal species such as languages distinct sites.7 Callopyllum inophyllum, Terminalia catta- In 1848, the naturalist, John pa, , taccada, The Guugu Yimithirr word for coconut, MacGillivray, recorded the word Waraba Casuarina equisetifolia and Ficus micro- Keremande, was recorded by Parkinson in 5 for coconut in the Djagaraga (Gudang) lan- carpa. While all of these species can be the in 1770. The dictionar- guage of the indigenous people of Cape found in multiple countries, including ies produced by the Australian Society for York.8 Australia, the coconut, is not regarded as a Indigenous Languages have multiple words native species there.1 for coconuts and coconut trees. The Tiwi Tucker recorded the word Kunga for The belief that coconuts are not native Islander’s used the word, Arlipwa for coconut in the Lockhart River language. He is based on reports that the early European coconut tree and Pirimajirripuwa for the also recorded that the traditional owners mariners and botanists did not find any coconuts. The Iwaidja people of the said coconut palms were always there, they coconut trees. Consequently, coconuts are Cobourg Peninsular and Croker used owned trees and that they also made a range regarded as introduced invasive weedsNon-commercial to be the word Kaluku for the coconut tree and articles from coconut husks and shells. He destroyed. Indigenous Australians and other the nut. The Maung people of nearby wrote: “…the coconut is known to them by researchers believe that coconuts are native Goulburn Island also used the word their own dialectal name and features in cer- and that the unique Australian types are Kaluku for the coconut tree and the nut. The tain traditional ceremonial and culinary 9 being lost and must be preserved. A search Djinang of Arnhem Land used Gurlwirri for arts.” 6 was done on indigenous languages, the fos- coconut palm. Hynes and Chase recorded that the tra- sil records and the accounts of the first The first published Kuku Yalanji dic- ditional owners of the Temple Bay and European sea captains and botanists to find tionary was compiled by Henry and Ruth Lockhart River said the coconuts had evidence in order to resolve the issue of Hershberger and fluent Kuku Yalanji elders. always been there, families owned coconut coconuts being native to Australia. They recorded the word, Jirimandi, for trees and they regard them as a native Generally, if a plant was in Australia coconut.7 They also recorded distinct place species. The Temple Bay traditional owners before European colonization in 1788, it is names for groves of coconut trees. A planted nuts that were surplus to the food considered to be native.2 coconut grove near the mouth of Emmagen needs of their children, above the high tide The classification of coconut pheno- Creek, north of Cape Tribulation was called line.10 types is complex and still evolving as more Kulngurbu. The Kuku Yalanji clearly distin- The fact is multiple traditional owners research gets published. A simple analysis is guished this grove from the beach. The state that coconuts have always been in sufficient for this article. Coconuts are name for the beach is Ngamujin and the Australia, owned trees, had words for them, divided into Indo-Pacific and Indo-Atlantic lower end is called Kaliway because it is an specific names for groves, and used them forms. The Indo-Pacific form is divided into important story site. for food, artifacts and ceremonies. This

[page 6] [International Journal of Plant Biology 2021; 12:9025] Review should be enough evidence to accept that growing in Australia. Flinders’ observation that it had not they were growing on the Australian main- Cook and Banks found bamboo washed been in the water for long shows that it had land prior to European colonization in 1788 up along beaches and because they didn’t not drifted far. A piece of coconut shell and by definition are native to Australia. find any bamboo , they assumed these could not have floated more than a thousand had drifted in from a distant country. There kilometres from the Torres Straits or the are two species of bamboos, Neololeba atra nearest Pacific islands as it would have and Mullerochloa moreheadiana, that are become water logged and sunk. It would The fossil records native to the nearby rainforests and could have come from a nearby tree. easily drift to the Endeavour River and Flinders sailed outside the Great Barrier The authoritative book, Australian . Reef from just north of Cape Upstart until Palms: Biogeography, Ecology and Cook and Banks also mentioned that Murray Island in the Torres Straits to avoid Systematics by John Dowe cites a fossil they found seeds of plants washed up on the Cook’s coral reef ‘labyrinth’, missing identified as Cocos nucifera L. that dated beaches that they did not think came from coconut palms on the coast. from the late Pliocene which means that it is Australia. The majority of seeds that are on Alan Cunningham, the botanist on over two and a half million years old. Dowe the beaches in Queensland come from Captain Phillip Parker King’s surveys on cites research on finding fossils of Cocos native plants that grow along the coast, the Mermaid wrote on April 7, 1818, that he pollen dating from the Miocene in rivers and estuaries of Queensland. planted a coconut he found on South Australia. This indicates that coconuts may On May 28, 1789, Captain Bligh landed Goulburn Island on North Goulburn Island have been in Australia for more than five on Restoration Island, Queensland, after a off the north coast of Arnhem Land. He million years.11 marathon journey in a small boat from near wrote: “A cocoa nut, found on the sands Tahiti after the mutiny of the Bounty. He near the watering place at the other island, I wrote: “Many pieces, of cocoa-nut shells planted near the beach.”16 and husk were found about the shore, but Captain King wrote, in the Narrative of The early Sea Captain records we could find no cocoa-nut trees, neither a Survey Volume 1, about finding a fresh The earliest documented, evidence of did I see any on the main.”14 He could not green coconut on June 16,1819 at Cape coconuts in Australia was reported by Cook, see 20 kilometers to the beach at Lockhart Cleveland,only south of present-day Townsville, Banks and Parkinson in June-August 1770 River or 30 kilometers to Temple Bay that he believed came from a nearby tree. when they recorded finding nuts in and where according to Hynes and Chase, and “Near the extremity of the Cape some bam- around the Endeavour River and Lizard Tucker, the traditional owners stated trees boo was picked up, and also a fresh green Island, in the present-day State of were growing.9,10 use coconut that appeared to have been lately Queensland. A few days later on June 1 on Saunders tapped for the milk.”17 Cunningham wrote Banks records finding coconuts in the Island, Bligh wrote: “In my walk round the in his diary that the green coconut was vicinity of the Endeavour River, on July 1 island, I found several cocoa-nut shells, the found in a traditional owner’s village on the and July 5. He wrote: “Here I found innu- remains of an old wigwam., and the backs shore. They did not see them however they merable fruits, many of Plants I had not of two turtle…”14 Pieces of coconut husks saw their fresh footprints in the sand.16 seen in this countrey; among them were and the shells cannot float for long before This find is significant. Green coconuts some Cocoa nuts that had been open’d (as becoming water logged and sinking. The quickly turn brown after either falling or Tupia told us) by a kind of Crab, calld by husks and shells that Bligh found most like- being picked from a tree. Consequently, it the Dutch Beurs Krabbe (Cancer Latro) that ly were either the result drift nuts being con- could not have drifted more than a thousand feeds upon them.”12 sumed on the islands or from consumed kilometres from Pacific islands or the No such crab exists in Australia. More nuts drifting from nearby on the mainland. Torres Straits. It had to have come from a likely scenarios were being opened and Blight never set foot on the mainland nearby tree. eaten by the traditional owners or the giant and the two times he came close to it, he felt King recorded finding several coconuts white-tailed rat (Uromys caudimaculatus), a too intimidated by the presence of the tradi- above the high tide line on a beach near the native species that commonly feeds on tional owners to land on the shore. He did mouth of the Endeavour River on July 5, coconuts. Non-commercialnot want to go close to the coast as they did 1819.17 Cook wrote on August 14, 1770, as his not have any weapons and were frightened- Cunningham, reported finding coconuts boat, The Endeavour, was departing Lizard of being attacked with no way of defending at Lizard Island during Kings’ third voyage Island. “I had forgot to mention in its proper themselves. Consequently, he missed seeing in 1820. “On the 6th of August, I landed on place that not only of these Islands but in any coconut palms growing along the coast. Cook’s Lizard Island (where a whaler’s ton severl places on the Sea beach in and about Mathew Flinders wrote, in A Voyage to butt and several cocoanuts—one quite Endeavour River we found Bamboos, Terra Australis Vol 2, about finding a sound and perfect—were found upon the Cocoa-nutts, the Seeds of Plants, and coconut shell on Aken’s Island in beach)…”16 Pummick Stones which were not the pro- . Flinders wrote on On July 3, 1839, Captain J. Lort Stokes duce of this Country from all the discover- September 3, 1802: “Upon the south-east of the Beagle reported finding coconuts on ies we have been able to make oin it. it is side of Aken’s Island, there was thrown up Lizard Island. “Two old coconuts and large reasonable to suppose that they are the pro- a confused mass of different substances; quantities of pumicestone were picked up duce of some Country lying to the Eastward including a quantity of pumice stone, sever- on the south-east side of the island.”18 The and brought here by the Easterly Trade al kinds of coral, five or six species of fact that Cook found coconuts on Lizard winds.”13 shells, skeletons of fish and sea snakes, the Island in 1770, Cunningham found them in Because Cook and Banks did not find fruit of the , and a piece of cocoa- 1820 and Stokes found them in 1839 shows coconut palms, they assumed the nuts had nut shell without bernacles or anything to that they were regularly drifting to there. drifted in from Pacific islands and this start- indicate that it had been long in the water… On July 11, Stokes recorded finding ed the belief that coconut palms were not ”15 evidence of coconuts on Boydan Island

[International Journal of Plant Biology 2021; 12:9025] [page 7] Review

(now Boydong Island). “We crossed it Queensland’s eastern coast prior to have been mature groves of coconuts when accordingly in every direction, and discov- European colonization. Cook sailed past in the dark at 6 am on June ered the remains of native fires, near which Baron Ferdinand von Mueller in 9, 1770 and named the Frankland Islands great quantities of turtle bones, and some Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 1865- (Russell Island is in the Franklin group).13 coconut shells were scattered about.”18 66, lists a mature coconut tree growing at a Flinders missed them because he sailed Stokes stated that all the inhabited traditional owner’s settlement at Cawarral well outside the outer reef.15 Captain Stokes Torres Straits Islands within 30 nautical in the Keppel Bay region.21 of The Beagle sailed past them at night on miles of Australian mainland had coconuts The collector, Anthelme Thozet, wrote June 1839.18 The most interesting example trees. in a letter to the editor published in The is when King visited the Frankland Islands He missed seeing coconuts trees on the Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, 6 on June 17, 1821 and went to the aid of 2 Australian coast as they were “keeping January 1869: “It was only six years after a ships there, and did not report seeing about seven miles from it”.18 Seven nautical large population had settled on the basin of coconuts palms, even though they were miles is almost 13 kms, a distance that make the Fitzroy River that the first information mature trees then.17 This clearly shows that it impossible to see individual trees. of the existence of a cocoanut tree growing mariners and their botanists can sail close to Jukes, the naturalist on the Fly, wrote on at Cawarral was given by Mr. Robert the trees and miss them. August 6, 1843, in Narrative of the Spencer. I shortly after secured specimens Surveying Voyage of HMS Fly During the of the leaves, flowers, and fruits for identi- Years 1842–1846, that although they hadn’t fication, which I forwarded in November, found coconut trees they had found fresh 1864, to our illustrious Australian botanist Conclusions coconuts on the beaches of the eastern 22 Dr. Ferd. von Mueller.” The information that early mariners and Queensland coast. The mention of finding He described the tree: “… its height botanists did not report finding coconut fresh coconuts shows that they hadn’t drift- about forty-five feet; its stunted and trees until 1848 cannot be used as proof ed far.19 crooked growth near the base shows unmis- they did not exist in Australia. It is only takable proof of the many struggles it has proof that they either did not see them or did sustained against hurricanes and bush fires. not reportonly seeing them before then. They The nuts it bears are rather small, limited in regularly found evidence of coconuts The first records of coconut trees quantity, and below the average of those including green and fresh nuts in the inner John MacGillivray, the naturalist on the borne by a vigorous plant.” reef coast and islands. Some of these nuts HMS Rattlesnake, recorded finding two “It would, however, be difficult to makeusemust have come from nearby trees rather small groves of coconuts on Russell Island any correct estimate about the age of the than floating in from the Torres Straits or in the Frankland group. He described the tree in question; but I venture to say that it Pacific Islands, which in many cases were 22 mature trees full of nuts while conducting is above sixty years old.” over a thousand kilometres away. Two natural history research there between June Bentham and Mueller writing in Flora groves of mature coconut trees were found 12 and June 19, 1848.8 Australiensis in 1878, used it as a type spec- 1848. The indigenous knowledge, linguis- As coconuts live for between 70-100 imen for an Australian coconut, which tics and oral history that coconuts have years, the mature trees would have started should have been sufficient to resolve the always been in Australia must be taken as growing in the latter part off the 1700s, long debate over coconuts being native. They evidence that they grew in Australia. before any record of Europeans spreading describe the nuts as small, angular and 3 Finally, a fossil coconut along with fossils coconuts along the Queensland coast. Given sided. These are distinct niu kafa nuts, the of Cocos pollen is evidence they may have that there were two groves, that would have wild type of the coconut, rather than the been in Australia for millions of years. started from the germination of one or two large round nut of the cultivated niu vai More than one hundred coastal Indo- 23 nuts and that these groves had multiple trees form. Pacific species are found in Australia. It that had to be the result of several genera- This area of Keppel Bay was still occu- defies logic to suggest that all these species tions, indicates that they could have been pied by the traditional owners as they hadn’t drifted to Australia and established them- there for hundreds of years. The Rattlesnake been dispossessed by Europeans until 1870, selves, however one of the best adapted undertook the first comprehensive surveyNon-commercial of six years after Thozet sent the specimens to species for drifting and colonizing coasts, the shore, botany, geology as well as the Mueller, clearly showing that this tree was Cocos nucifera L., did not drift 30 nautical islands and reefs of the inner passage of the growing long before European colonization miles (56 kilometers) from the Torres Strait Great Barrier Reef, which explains why there. Flinders report in 1802 of a coconut Islands, as reported by Stokes in 1846, to they were the first expedition to find shell that had no signs of being in the water the Australian mainland and establish plants coconut palms. long at nearby Shoalwater Bay is further on the coast.18 The Russell Island groves were visited evidence of bearing coconut palms in the The management of coconuts in by the Dalrymple expedition on October region. Australia should be based on the fact that 14,1873 and again in November and The first mariners clearly missed they were growing on the Australian main- December that year to collect coconuts. mature trees on Russell Island and Keppel land before 1788 and are therefore a native Hill, the expedition’s botanist stated in his Bay as well as the trees that the traditional species. Most importantly there needs to be report that the two groves consisted of 28 owners stated existed at the mouth of a program to identify and preserve the trees of various sizes and that some of the Emmagen Creek, Bloomfield River, unique Australian niu kafa and intermediate trees were over 50 feet (15.5 meters) high. Lockhart River and Temple Bay. types. The historical groves on Russell He also reported that sailors were cutting The Russell Island coconuts are a good Island and at the mouth of Emmagen Creek down the trees to get the nuts and that the example. The description by MacGillivray have disappeared. Only two trees exist fur- coconut-groves were threatened.20 and a drawing of the trees by Brierly in ther along Emmagen Beach and these are in These groves are clear proof that there 1848 show that large mature trees existed danger of being lost. These trees are exam- were mature coconut palms growing along prior to European contact.1,8 They would ples unique Australian coconut phenotypes

[page 8] [International Journal of Plant Biology 2021; 12:9025] Review and are part of the valuable, genetic biodi- 7. Hershberger H, Hershberger R. Kuku 1814. versity of this continent. Losing them Yalanji Dictionary 1982, Reprinted 16. Lee I. Early Explorers in Australia. means the extinction of unique Australian 1998. Available from: From the Log-Books and Journals, flora. Coconut management needs to http://www.ausil.org.au/sites/ausil/files/ Methuen & Co., London,1925. change from the belief that all coconuts are WP-B-7%20English%20-%20Kuku- 17. King P. Narrative of a survey of the Yal%20Dict._0.pdf introduced invasive weeds and should be intertropical and western coasts of destroyed to preserving the unique 8. MacGillivray J. Narrative of the Voyage Australia. Performed between the years Australian types in situ in their preferred of the HMS Rattlesnake. T&W Boone, 1818 and 1822; with an appendix con- ecological environments. London: 1852. 9. Tucker R. Palms of Subequatorial taining various subjects relating to Queensland, Palm and Cycad Societies hydrography and natural history. Vol 1, of Australia (PACSOA). 1988. Murray, 1827. References Available from: http://www.pacsoa.org. 18. Stokes J, Discoveries in Australia. Vol. au/palms/Cocos/nucifera_oz.html 1 Vol. 2. T&W Boone, London 1846. 1. Dowe J, Smith L. A brief history of the 10. Hynes R, Chase D. Plants, Sites and 19. Jukes J. Narrative of the Surveying coconut palm in Australia. Palms Domiculture: Aboriginal Influence Voyage of HMS Fly: During the Years 2002;46:134-8. upon Plant Communities in Cape York 1842-1846, Volume 1,T&W Boone, 2. Fensham R, Laffineur B. Defining the Peninsula. Archeol Oceania 1982;17:1. London, 1847. native and naturalised flora for the 11.Dowe J. Australian Palms: Australian continent. Austral J Botany Biogeography, Ecology and 20. Dalrymple G, Narrative and reports of 2019;67:55-69. Systematics. CSIRO Publishing, the Queensland North East Coast 3. Nayar N. The Coconut: Phylogeny, Collingwood, Vic, Australia, 2010. Expedition 1873, Queensland Origins, and Spread, Academic Press, 12. Banks J. Bank’s Journal: Daily Entries. Government Printer, 1874. 2016. Available from: 21. Mueller F von, Fragmenta 4. Buckley R, Harries H. Self-Sown Wild- http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/ban onlyPhytographiae Australiae. Vol. 5. Type Coconuts from Australia. ks/17700705.html (Accessed Nov. 2, Government of Victoria, Melbourne, Biotropica 1984;16:148-51. 2020) 1865-66. 5. The Australian Society for Indigenous 13. Cook J. Cook’s Journal: Daily Entries. 22. Thozet A. Letter to the editor published Languages (AuSIL), Dictionaries. Available from: http://southseas.nla. in The Sydney Morning Herald, Wed 6 Available from: http://ausil.org.au gov.au/journals/cook/17700814.htmluse /node/3717 (Accessed Nov. 2, 2020) (Accessed Nov. 2, 2020) January, 1869. 6. Parkinson S. Parkinson’s Journal: Daily 14. Bligh W. A Voyage to the South Sea. 23. Bentham G, von Mueller F. Flora aus- Entries. Available from: http://south- George Nicol, Pall Mall, London, 1792. traliensis: a description of the plants of seas.nla.gov.au/journals/parkinson/194. 15. Flinders M. A Voyage to Terra Australis. the Australian territory, L. Reeve and html (Accessed Nov. 2, 2020) Vol 2. George Nicol, Pall Mall, London, co., London, 1878.

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