Цвіт кокоса

The inflorescence

The coconut palm is monoecious, with male and female flowers growing on the same tree and in the same inflorescence. The female flower is much larger than the male flower. Botanically the inflorescence is a spadix inside a sheathing spathe, and it takes some 14 months for each flower primordium to develop into one. A healthy tree can produce up to 15 inflorescences per year, staggered so that there is always a mature one with others in different stages of development.

Sap and sugar

Coconut sugar, also called coconut blossom sugar, is a palm sugar made from the sap of the flower bud stem of the coconut palm. The fresh sap is translucent and about 80% water. A container is fastened to the flower stump to collect it, and the white liquid that first collects is usually very sweet and non-alcoholic. As the water evaporates the sap turns into a thick syrup. Coconut sap, fresh or fermented, is drunk as toddy or tubâ in the Philippines. When left to ferment on its own, it becomes palm wine.

The plant

The accepted botanical name of the coconut palm is Cocos nucifera L., a species of the palm family Arecaceae. Mature trees bloom all year round, bearing leaves, flowers and fruit at the same time. Eleven months pass between the opening of the female flowers and the harvest of the fruit. Coconut palms are largely cross-pollinated, though most dwarf varieties pollinate themselves.

Composition and products of the sap

Sap tapped from the unopened spadix in a chilled collecting box is called Kalparasa; one analysis of it gave total sugars of 15.96 g per 100 g, free amino acids of 901 mg per 100 g and vitamin C of 13.45 mg per 100 g. The fresh sap has different local names, including neera or nira in Indonesia, tinamís in the Philippines, coconut toddy in Sri Lanka and namwan maphrao in Thailand. The main carbohydrates of coconut sugar are sucrose at 70–79%, with glucose and fructose at 3–9% each. The brown colour that develops as the sap is reduced comes mostly from caramelization. A young, well-maintained tree can give around 300 liters of toddy a year.

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