The Coconut Tree in Hawaii

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The Coconut Tree

The coconut tree has got to be the most popular and known fruit tree when one thinks of the tropics. In fact Hawaii and Florida are the only two places in the US that a coconut tree can grow outdoors. Texas is a another state in which they can grow but will not likely produce fruit because Texas still experiences cooler winter months. The coconut tree has many uses besides being used as a food source. There are many people who artfully design the coconut and use them as souveniers and decorations. There are many other uses for the coconut as well, according to Wikepedia ...

• Coconut water can be used as an intravenous fluid
• Coir(the fibre from the husk of the coconut) is used in ropes, mats, brushes, caulking boats and as stuffing fibre; it is also used extensively in for making potting compost.
• Coconut oil can be rapidly processed and extracted as a fully organic product from fresh coconut flesh and used in many ways including as a and in cosmetics, or as a direct replacement for diesel fuel is the dried meat of the seed and, after further processing, is a source of low grade coconut oil
• The leaves provide materials for baskets and roofing thatch.
• Palmwood comes from the trunk and is increasingly being used as an ecologically-sound substitute for endangered hardwoods. It has several applications, particularly in furniture and specialized construction (notably in Manila's Coconut Palace).
• Hawaiians hollowed the trunk to form drums, containers, or even small canoes.
• The husk and shells can be used for fuel and are a good source of charcoal.
• Dried half coconut shells with husks are used to buff floors. In the Philippines, it is known as "bunot", and in Jamaica it is simply called "coconut brush"
• In the Philippines, dried half shells are used as a music instrument in a folk dance called maglalatik, a traditional dance about the conflicts for coconut meat within the Spanish era
• Shirt buttons can be carved out of dried coconut shell. Coconut buttons are often used for Hawaiian Aloha shirts.
• The stiff leaflet midribs can be used to make cooking skewers, kindling arrows, or are bound into bundles, brooms and brushes.
• The roots are used as a dye, a mouthwash, and a medicine for dysentery. A frayed-out piece of root can also be used as a toothbrush.
• alf coconut shells are used in theatre Foley sound effects work, banged together to create the sound effect of a horse's hoofbeats. They were used in this way in the Monty Python film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 
• ome countries use the cococnut fibre for making a rug.
• The leaves can be woven to create effective roofing materials, or reed mats.
• Half coconut shells may be deployed as an improvised bra, especially for comedic effect or theatrical purposes. They were used in this way in the 1970s UK sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum for example.
• Drained coconuts can be filled with gunpowder and used as Improvised explosive devices.
• In fairgrounds, a coconut shy" is a popular target practice game, and coconuts are commonly given as prizes.
• A coconut can be hollowed out and used as a home for a rodent or small bird. Halved, drained coconuts can also be hung up as bird feeders, and after the flesh has gone, can be filled with fat in winter to attract tits.
• Fresh inner coconut husk can be rubbed on the lens of snorkelling goggles to prevent fogging during use.
• Dried coconut leaves can be burned to ash, which can be harvested for lime.
• Coconuts can be used as ammunition for homemade catapults.
• Dried half coconut shells are used as the bodies of musical instruments, including the Chinese yehu and banhu, and the Vietnamese đàn gáo.
• The "branches" (leaf petioles) are strong and flexible enough to make a switch. The use of coconut branches in corporal punishment was revived in the Gilbertese community on Choiseul in the Solomon Islands in 2005
• In World War II, coastwatcher scout Biuki Gasa was the first of two from the Solomon Islands to reach the shipwrecked, wounded, and exhausted crew of Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 commanded by future U.S. president John F. Kennedy. Gasa suggested, for lack of paper, delivering by dugout canoe a message inscribed on a husked coconut shell. This coconut was later kept on the president's desk, and is now in the John F. Kennedy Library.
• Coconut trunks are used for building small bridges, preferred for their straightness, strength and salt resistance