International Journal of Plant Biology 2021; volume 11:9025 The evidence for native two main phenotypes of coconuts based on coconuts growing in Australia clear morphological characteristics − niu Correspondence: André Leu, PO Box 800, kafa and niu vai.3 Mossman, Queensland, 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, coconut 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 islands 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, Hibiscus tiliaceus, Scaevola 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 Endeavour river 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 Island 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 plants, 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 Lizard Island. 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.