Lodoicea maldivica recently got a bust of attention when the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History released a video about this fascinating plant and its record setting large seeds. While its most proper common name is “coco de mer”, the denizens of the internet rapidly nicknamed it the “butt nut” due to the shape and size of its coconut-like seeds. Here at Gardzen we love both plants and juvenile humor, so we decided to jump on the butt nut trend by sharing a bit of botanical and horticultural information about Lodoicea maldivica. So join us as we explore the history, cultivation, and uses of the coco de mer and learn a bit more about this fascinating plant and, yes, its funnily-shaped seeds. Let’s dig in!
Coco de Mer: An Island Plant with a Global Story
Lodoicea maldivica is a member of the Arecaceae or palm family. While Arecaceae species are found around the world in tropical and subtropical environments, the native range of coco de mer is much smaller. This plant is a native of the Seychelles, an archipelago of around 115 islands located in the Indian Ocean about 900 miles/1500 kilometers off the coast of Africa. As with many coastal palm trees, it can reach great sizes and typically grows to around 80-115 feet/25-35 meters in height. It boasts the classic looking palm leaves which reach up 20-30 feet/7-10 meters in length and are 15 feet/4.5 meters wide.
The fruits and flowers are what really set this palm apart from its peers—and let’s face it, it’s what got our attention in the first place. Coco de mer produces an inflorescence that resembles a catkin—the fuzzy top of a cattail plant—and produces lovely little green-yellow blooms when flowering. These flowers are much loved by local pollinators and are also a primary food source for many species of lizards and birds. Most coco de mer produce a single inflorescence each growing season, though sometimes a group of two or three may appear. The inflorescence grows as the flowers are pollinated, eventually becoming a cluster of coconut-like fruit. Unlike many other palms, the coco de mer’s fruit do not float and are thus not dispersed by the sea. This may explain its limited native range and limited natural spread.
These fruit are what give the plant its colloquial name “butt nut”. With the husk removed, the exposed nut/seed resembles a human derriere. The embryonic seedling is found at the joint of the two lobes, and draws nutrition from both halves as it grows. This seed is unique—not only is it the largest known palm fruit, but at 15-20 inches/40-50cm also the largest known plant seed, period! The unusually large size may be due to a number of different factors: a lack of large animals on the island, the poor soil requiring large seeds with large stores of energy, and a botanical form of island gigantism have all been suggested. While we’re not botanists or experts on evolution, our experience with plants suggests that all of these causes contributed to the “butt nut” becoming the behemoth seed that it is.
The Myths, Legends, and Uses of Lodoicea maldivica
Exceptional plants tend to have exceptional stories, and Lodoicea maldivica is no exception. The large fruits and seeds were valued as trade goods around the Indian Ocean. They were exhibited as oddities, used to make containers or musical instruments, and hollowed out for uses as beggar’s bowls by wandering monks and mystics from a variety of faiths. However, for much of their history the origin of the “butt nut” was unknown to most who encountered it, and one popular legend held that they were the seeds of a giant plant that grew at the bottom of the ocean. There are reasons for this; while the fertile fruits do not float the hollowed out husks do and that may be how many folks first encountered coco de mer. They were prized to the point that when a seed did wash up on shore in the Maldives, local laws held that they were to be presented to the king.
Once the origin of the plant was known, the species spread rapidly for use as an ornamental tree, and it’s often found as far afield as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and East Timor in that role. In recent years, conservation efforts in the Seychelles have begun replanting stands of coco de mer to make up for the effects of habitat loss and deforestation.
“Butt Nut”: Further Evidence That Plants Can Be Fun
Lodoicea maldivica is a really cool plant in its own right, with world-record sized seeds and a cool series of myths and legends attached. But its recent burst of fame for its buttocks-shaped seed is a reminder that plants, botany, and gardening aren't always serious affairs. Sometimes we can just have fun and make a few cheesy jokes—and we should! Laughter is part of life and should be part of our life with plants. So while we hope you learned a bit about coco de mer today, we also hope you had a good chuckle or two about the “butt nut”!
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