Lime in the Coconut?

Coconut water, coconut milk, coconut juice, etc. Whatever you want to call it, we all know that the inside of a coconut is filled with delicious liquid that we just can't get enough of. But what is it? Is it a milk? A juice?

Nope! It's an endosperm!

Like many other trees, the Coconut palm uses drupes to reproduce. These drupes are the fleshy fruits with one lone seed inside them. The normal hairy brown nut-like object we think of when we think of a coconut is actually similar to a peach or cherry pit. This large, hard sphere is the lone encasement of the tree's embryo.

But, how does this relate to coconut "milk?" Well, think about what a seed needs to do. It falls off the mother plant and is completely on its own. The tiny embryo needs to be able to get all the nutrients that it needs to be able to become large enough to compete with other plants. So each of the seeds is like a tiny care package for the embryo inside of it.

Coconuts are no different. Tucked away in the "meat," or endosperm, of a coconut is the fertilized embryo of the Coconut Palm. In the center of this, there is liquid endosperm. As the embryo uses up the solid endosperm while it grows, the liquid endosperm is maturing and becoming solid as well. This mother plant has given her child a long-lasting (and delicious) gift to make sure that the new generation survives.

Now thats good parenting.