Do both male and female palm trees produce coconuts, or just females?

Answer 1

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Coconut palms are monoecious ,but the flowers are UNISEXUAL. The meaning is ; there are separate male and female flowers that are BORNE on one and the same tree.

Let us compare it with Papaya plant . In papaya also the flowers are UNISEXUAL. Male and Female flowers are different. IN ADDITION , they are BORNE on different plants. So in Papaya , the plant is dioecious and flowers are unisexual.

Therefore in Papaya Only the Female plants bear fruits, while the Male plant and its flowers contribute pollen for fertilization.

Now , in coconut , since both , male and female flowers are borne on one and the same tree, all the coconut palms bear fruits. There is nothing like Male coconut tree/palm and female coconut tree / palm .

The illustrations below will show you the flowers together on the tree. The ones with distinct spheres are the female flowers ( They are near the base only )and each sphere is young ovary that will turn in to fruit on maturity. The other flowers ( extremely numerous ) are the male flowers.
http://www.uga.edu/fruit/image/coco%20in…

This is excellent image ( Enlarge it by clicking on the inbuilt arrow near the lower end of the picture. Put the curser on the picture first. )
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/car…
http://www.babasgarden.net/coconut-3-flo…

http://www.botanypictures.com/plantimage…

http://www.life.uiuc.edu/help/digitalflo…

Coconut palm looks like this ==
http://www.orgsites.com/fl/hashimotos-en…
And bears fruits like this=
http://www.bio.ilstu.edu/armstrong/sylla…


IMPORTANT NOTE:- Palm tree is a general term indicates only the appearnce of the tree. ALL PALMS ARE NOT COCONUT PALMS. THERE ARE MORE THAN 2000 DIFFERENT TYPES OF PALMS . BUT COCONUTS ARE BORNE BY ONLY ONE COCOS NUCIFERA!!!!

THERE ARE DATE PALMS ALSO IN ARABIAN COUNTRIES ; BUT THEY PRODUCE DATES ONLY AND NOT COCONUTS.

THERE ARE OIL PALMS , THE FRUITS OF WHICH PRODUCE EDIBLE OIL. BUT THEY DO NOT BEAR COCONUTS.

THERE ARE BETELNUT PALMS AS WELL !!

Source(s):

Botanist

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Asker's Comment:

GGGGGRreat!

Answer 2

I believe palm trees are angiosperms if I'm not mistaken. As with most angiosperms, also called flowering plants, pollen from a stamens is deposited on the pistil of a flower from another angiosperm. Most flowering plants I know of have a carpel, the "female" reproductive organs, and a stamens, the "male" parts all on the same angiosperm. Self-fertilization sometimes occurs with some plants but a great many will pollinate another plant of the same species with their pollen either carried by the wind of picked up on the bodies of pollinators such as bees or wasps for example. Even though it is a tree it is still a flowering plant and so a maple tree for example will have small barely discernable flowers at certain times of the year. Or a honeylocust tree, or really any angiosperm.

So all coconut trees can produce coconuts because they all have carpels and stamens on the same tree.

Oops! The guy below me is right. A coconut is a fruit which is a ripened ovary of a plant, the female part of the plant. So while all the trees will bear coconuts and there are no specifically male or female trees only the female portion of the tree will develop a coconut.

Edit: I added this link. If you read a bit there and then scroll UP (I know, most the time you scroll DOWN) there is some terms like monoecious and dioecious and definitions that actually make sense there.

Source(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_sexua…

Answer 3

Coconut palms are monoecious (at least according to Wikipedia), with male and female parts to every flower. This means that every flower should form a coconut.

Source(s):

Botany student
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut