The surprising study of the late “walking” “Seven in one” coconut palms from Rarotonga in Cook Islands

[Dr Roland Bourdeix]

Dear colleagues

See the surprising study of the late “walking” “Seven in one” coconut palms from Rarotonga in Cook Islands, and its possible application for improving the newest planting designs.

The story of the late Seven-in-one coconut palm:

http://replantcoconut.blogspot.com/2018/04/surprising-lessons-from-late-seven-in.html

The newest planting designs:

http://replantcoconut.blogspot.fr/2017/09/piquetage-des-cocoteraies.html

All comments welcome!

Kind regards

Dr Roland Bourdeix

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by Dr Roland Bourdeix
picture download

[Palmsbro]

7 beautiful palms from one seed! I wonder if the root growth was pushing the palms away from each other. Also, what is the palm planted closest to these on the right side of the page.

[Kailua_Krish]

The first link was really interesting, thanks!

[Dr Roland Bourdeix]

Thanks the second link is also interesting, although more technical. It deals with people and farmers who want to intercrop coconut palms with other tree crops...

[Dr Roland Bourdeix]

Just now, Palmsbro said:

7 beautiful palms from one seed! I wonder if the root growth was pushing the palms away from each other. Also, what is the palm planted closest to these on the right side of the page.

Thanks, so this is a third hypothesis to explain how these palms were "walking" - very interesting!

[Dr Roland Bourdeix]

Just now, Dr Roland Bourdeix said:

Thanks, so this is a third hypothesis to explain how these palms were "walking" - very interesting!

And sorry, I don't know the name of the palm species close to the Seven-in-one. It is close to the present place of the ministry of justice, avarua, rarontonga, Cook island. You can easily find it on google maps, so may be find by this way better pictures of this other palm...

[Zeeth]

12 minutes ago, Palmsbro said:

7 beautiful palms from one seed! I wonder if the root growth was pushing the palms away from each other. Also, what is the palm planted closest to these on the right side of the page.

Looks like Pritchardia pacifica to me

[Palmsbro]

8 minutes ago, Zeeth said:

Looks like Pritchardia pacifica to me

Thank you, Zeeth. Yeah, I just opened the palmpedia page on P. Pacifica, and this looks almost exactly like one of the photos on the wiki page.

Edited April 16, 2018 by Palmsbro
Forgot to add something

[The Germinator]

Why did they have to chop them down?

[gyuseppe]

 

they did not have to cut them!

[richnorm]

Strange that they all grew outwards rather than into the prevailing wind.  I spent a couple of week in Rarotonga but never noticed this fine grouping!  There are heaps of Pritchardia pacifica in Avarua.

[palmfriend]

This is a great thread - Thank you Dr. Bourdeix!

...and to be honest, it kicked something loose in my brain  

When I saw the photo you posted and after checking the first link, I pulled up the photos I took when I was 

on the Cooks in 2005 since I was sure that I saw something similar but could not place it.

To make it short, I crawled through my files (I have been to Rarotonga, Aitutaki and Atiu) and 

found this one taken on Aitutaki (100% sure, no doubt) in the harbor area: 

There are six Cocos nucifera in an almost similar arrangement - story says, they are from one seed, too. Does someone know more about this one?

Best regards from Okinawa - no hijacking intended! -

Lars

 

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

I wonder if these were some of the islands that the U.S. did nuclear weapons testing on the 1950's?  I think France may have also done some nuclear testing in the South Pacific too?  That might explain such a phenomenon occurring, because, I have never heard of more than two palms from one coconut (and even that is very rare)!

John

[kurt decker]

I posted a picture of some coconut trees I planted 21 years ago on another thread a couple days ago. I'll post it again because the same thing happened here. The two trees in the rear left of the photo were a double in a 25 gallon pot, which is only 24 in wide. The stems are now separated by three or four feet at the base. There has been no erosion of soil or build up, yet somehow those stems have moved apart from each other. They don't look like they were ever a double.