Where were the First Coconuts in Florida

[Xerarch]

Yes, there are a few coconuts on SPI, TX as well as Brownsville, they can even live up to fruiting, there are other threads here with pictures. Unfortunately, they are never very long term, I hear some survived the prolonged cold weather in 2010 though.

[Xenon]

All of the coconut palms I know of in S. Texas survived the 2010 and 2011 freezes(2011 was definitely the worst freeze in over 20 years). Brownsville and South Padre often have years of zone 10b and even 11(on the island) winters between freezes. The area hasn't dropped below 28F since 1989. South Padre did not drop below 40F last winter. Don't know why there aren't more coconuts there when large mature royal palms are everywhere (Royals seem to be the palm of choice for new developments). Lots of foxtail, majesty, and bottle palms. A few big Adonidia too. Coastal S. Texas needs more coconuts!!

[kylecawazafla]

I can't imagine how nices the beaches must have been in Florida back in 1807!

[Zeeth]

The first account of Coconuts in Florida was Spanish surveyor Vignoles who found an abandoned grove of Coconuts four miles North of Jupiter Inlet and it was estimated they were established in 1807.Additional,Coconuts were found at the following locations and times:

Boca Grande/Captiva-1813

Miami-1815

Key West-1824

Indian Key-1840

Lake Worth- 1860

Bump! Here's a new one for the list:

Ellenton - 1851

This comes from a book called "A Culinary History of Florida" written by Joy Sheffield Harris. The important quote is as follows:

"In the mid 1800's, Major Robert Gamble established a 3,500 acre sugarcane plantation, now Gamble Plantation Historic State Park in Ellenton... Gamble noted in an agricultural circular of 1851, 'The fruit culture of my immediate district is confined to the production of oranges, lemons, limes, guavas, bananas, pineapples and cocoanuts.'". From pages 80-81 of the book.

[GMann]

That map is where they exist today. There were no coconuts in Australia or the Caribbean prior to European settlement. I think I read somewhere that there may have been pre-Colombian coconuts on the Pacific Coast of the Americas.

Nobody knows where they first originated. But it had to be somewhere in the Indian Ocean or South Pacific, with that in mind it is rather strange than none ever floated to the shores of Australia...

[Moose]

I thought Swallows distributed Cocoanuts?

an african swallow maybe but not a european swallow. they could grip it by the husk...

[Sandy Loam]

Interesting. I am just seeing this thread for the first time now.

It is interesting to read that Puerto Penasco (Sonora, Mexico) has coconut trees growing there. That beach town is less than an hour from Arizona, so it must be considerably more humid by the shoreline of the Sea of Cortez. Most Americans know Peurto Penasco by its other name, "Rocky Point" or "Arizona's Beach".

Although certainly not the first coconuts in Florida, I was reading that MIami and Miami Beach region had several coconut plantations roughly a century ago. When you go to Crandon Park Beach in Miami, it is obvious that it was a coconut plantation because there are hundreds of very old coconut trees everywhere, and quite a distance away from the shoreline too. I understand that it was a coconut plantation back in the 1920s but was donated to the city in 1940 and thereafter became a city park.

My profile photo (look to the left) is a shot of Moorings Beach in the Middle Keys of Florida. The original mansion on Moorings Beach is from the 1930s, so I assume that the many coconut trees lining that beach are of a similar vintage.