Coconut pearl

The coconut pearl is alleged to be a coconut-produced gemstone. Claimed to be the rarest botanical gem in the world,[1] the coconut pearl supposedly grows inside the coconut.[2] However, the existence of these pearls is in dispute, and some claim that published photos are hoaxes.[3]

Wayne's Word, the source of much of the descriptive text and photographs used to illustrate coconut pearls on the Internet, writes that "several botany textbooks flatly state that coconut pearls are a hoax because proof of their existence is totally unfounded" and "I prematurely published an on-line note about this "pearl" [The Maharaja coconut pearl, on display at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida] in 1996 before I discovered that it did not come from a coconut."[4] They form in roughly one in every million coconuts according to the Ripley's believe it or not daily calendar.

In fiction, a Coconut Pearl is used as a plot point in the acclaimed children's adventure book, Nim's Island (1999) by Wendy Orr.

References

  1. ↑ Armstrong, Wayne P. (August 1996). "The Coconut Pearl". Coconut Museum. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  2. ↑ Reginald Child. "Coconuts". 2nd ed. London: Longman Group Ltd. 1974.
  3. ↑ "Botanical Jewelry Necklaces & Bracelets Made From Plants". Wayne's Word: An Online Textbook of Natural History. 2000. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
  4. ↑ "The Coconut Pearl". Wayne's Word. Retrieved 9 December 2010.

Further reading

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