Sea Coconut

The coco de mer is the palm tree with the largest coconuts in the world. It only grows on the Seychelles islands of Curieuse and Praslin. The growing place of the coco de mer was only discovered in 1768 by a French expedition. Before that, nothing was known about its origin. A popular belief was that it came from an unknown palm tree growing in the sea, hence the name Coco de Mer. This fruit with a still somewhat erotic shape was already attributed to a woman's rump in its scientific name. Lodoicea callypige, whose species designation cally-pige means beautiful rump in ancient Greek. The coco de mer is a rare protected species, classified as "endangered" on the IUCN Red List since 2007. As it is no longer authorized to be exported from the Seychelles, it is particularly sought after and special to encounter in Europe.