BOTANY Higher Secondary Second Year - Textbooks Online

Habit
Botanical description of Cocos nucifera
Unbranched tree with arborescent stem and a crown of large leaves.
It grows to a height of 60 to 100 feet.
Root
Fibrous and adventitious root system. As the stem increases in
diameter, new roots are added at higher levels from the massive basal
cushion and the youngest roots are visible above the soil surface.
Stem
Aerial, erect, unbranched and columnar, having prominent scars of
leaf bases. Internodes are usually short.
Leaf
Exstipulate, petiolate, petiole long and very strong with sheathing leaf
base, spiral and pinnately compound showing parallel venation.
Inflorescence
Large, lateral arising from the axils of leaves, compound spadix,
enclosed by large woody bract called spathe. Each spike in the spadix
bears 2 to 3 female flowers at the base and 200 to 300 male flowers at the
top. Flowers are protandrous, the female flowers open, after the male
flowers have withered.
Male flower
Bracteate, ebracteolate, sessile, staminate, incomplete, trimerous,
actinomorphic and pistillodes are present.
Perianth
Tepals 6 arranged in two whorls of three each, persistent and
polyphyllous showing valvate aestivation in both the whorls. Inner odd
tepal is posterior in position.
Androecium
Stamens 6 arranged in two whorls of three each and antiphyllous.
Anthers are dithecous, basifixed, introrse and dehiscing longitudinally.
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