Dwarf Coconuts

[Hugh Harries]

Snow White had no problem - not only was the name of each Disney dwarf  carved on  the end of the bed, they were identified by easily distinguished features: Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy and Doc. 

Dwarf coconut names are not so simple.

• Dr Nair is looking for a source of  green Malayan Dwarf
• Roland thinks there may be half a dozen green dwarf populations in Malaysia, not just one, pure green dwarf
• Dr Srinivasan calls for more insights on the  distribution pattern of Malayan Green Dwarf, Brazil Green Dwarf etc.
• Elan Star wants to know about the Samoan or Tongan dwarf in Hawaii.

So perhaps this is a good time to suggest that what is needed now is a Global Coconut Genome Consortium.

For a fee anyone should be able to send a coconut tissue sample (dwarf, tall, hybrid or unknown) to a collaborating laboratory for a DNA analysis that would identify that sample in terms of its similarity to, or difference from, all previously analysed samples. 

The technology is available in many countries on all continents (except Africa?); there are already laboratories able to handle coconut samples in Australia, China, Europe, the USA and Brazil, and probably elsewhere (and the cost is coming down).
 
There is an International Botanical Congress in Melbourne, Australia, this July. If anyone reading this email is going to that meeting, or knows someone who will be there, please make an opportunity to talk about starting a Global Coconut Genome Consortium (GCGC or GC^2).

In the meantime, returning to the subject of dwarf coconuts, there can never be a 100% "pure" green dwarf or any other coconut (until in vitro propagation methods are a practical possibility).

Indeed, all coconut "varieties" are no more or less than local populations that look phenotypically similar to other populations that share a recent common ancestor.

At the risk of causing more, not less, confusion I would like to suggest that the commonplace distinction of "tall or dwarf" should be forgotten and replaced. Instead we should recognise four "basic" plant habit phenotypes:

1. the tall wild type (with large and small fruited sub-types)
   
2. the tall domestic type (with different fruit-colour sub-types)
   
3. the dwarf domestic type (with different fruit-size and -colour sub-types)
4. the compact-habit dwarf (which has all the tall features except internode length)

But each of these basic phenotypes, and particularly the first two, are locally introgressed, so that there appears to be a fifth, intermediate, phenotype. For want of any accepted term, this can be thought of as the common cultivated coconut.

And, Elan, your dwarf is number 4 but if you look around you will certainly see number 3 as well.

Hugh Harries
Coconut Time Line
Coconut Knowledge Network

[Roland BOURDEIX]

Dear all,

 

There are plenty of varieties of Compact Dwarfs in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, some with Green, Brown, Red-orange and Yellow fruit, some with the pink marker inside the young fruits; a huge potential exists for some of these varieties, both for production and for making new hybrids (Dwarf xDwarf and Dwarf x Tall).

One interesting question is the origin and history of these dwarfs. The first "compact" dwarf was described by scientists as Niu Leka in Fiji, but I am not sure that these dwarfs really originates from Fiji; on the other hand, we did not know what happened to the progenies of the crosses Niu Leka x Malayan Red Dwarf made in Fiji by Marechal in 1926: may be some of the compact dwarfs presently available in Polynesia are further progenies of the cross created by Marechal.

 

I think at least part of the future of coconut breeding is dwarf x dwarf hybrids.... I am preparing a more complete information, with both pictures and DNA analysis, but I will need some more time. I have plenty of pictures available, I would like to see some pictures from Hawaii.

 

Kind regards

 

Roland

 

 

 

 

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De : coc...@googlegroups.com [mailto:coc...@googlegroups.com] De la part de Hugh Harries
Envoyé : vendredi 27 mai 2011 12:21
À : Google coconut group
Objet : [Coconut:4241] Dwarf Coconuts

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[Hugh Harries]

Roland

We do know what happened to some of the progeny of the crosses that Marechal made in Fiji. They were taken to Jamaica by the Director of Agriculture in the 1930s and when the Coconut Industry Board botanist made the first scientific survey of coconut varieties in Jamaica in the 1960s he identified these as "Fiji-Malayan" (Whitehead, R.A. (1966) Some notes on dwarf coconut palms in Jamaica. Tropical Agriculture (Trinidad) 43, 277-294).

It seems highly likely that anyone else who admired Marechal's hybrids might have taken the F1 seed - perhaps without realising that it would segregate on germination - and that might explain some of the ones that you have seen elsewhere.

What may be less well-known is that Marechal also used Rotuma Tall in some of his crosses. Their progeny might be more difficult to identify - until there is a GCGC to analyse the DNA!

Hugh 

[elan sun star]

Hugh Thanks so much This is well detailed and a very good answer

I would be interested in sending germ plasm for analysis . 

Easily accessible fruits with high yield should be a global goal in some small manner.

Once in the 1980'/s the King of Malaysia bright me there(sent me tickets etc) to photograph and write (I did photo-journalism besides just photos.

and i stayed in the Palace.

 He brought me to visit with the Sultan of Brunei who was at that time the richest man in the world.

if I have those old contacts i will ask for some localized research facilities to be created in thse areas for obvious reasons.

Borneo/Brunei and malaysia are not that far north of Australia

Hugh your attachment of the article on lipids and VCO is part of exponential research in and demand for 

Virgin Coconut Oil that has changed the markets radically in the past 10 years .

now the demand fo high quality conieeur coconut oils will be able to rival the best olive oils from Europe/New Zealand /and California.

there was not demand for coconut oil in the west     now it has exploded and the qualities will

 vary as much as the packaging and the varieties of tree stock/types.

More and more you will see finely bottled coconut oil right next to $50 bottles of Fine Olive oils and 

 as chefs begin to use it liberally for its butter like taste and consistency it will take on a new aura of distinguished taste.

The culinary and food source "Oil Wars" fought for many decades for ascendency through enormous mass production of low quality corn and canola oils

and especially with the inherent dangers of Genetically Modified versions of all the major commodity oils (Soy-Corn-Canola) which now have a public backlash directed at them and people are very attracted to the Virgin purity of coconut oil of high quality and coconut products.

The discerning public now gravitates towards the health benefits of coconut oilwhereas the "disinformation" propogated for many decades by the competing other food oils tried to convince the public that coconut was unhealthy. that is now being revealed by the books of so many of our members and coconut wise "nations especially the Phillipines and Thailand where there has enver been any question about the ehalth benefits of coconut oil.

I really suggest niche markets for some memebers in distinctive bottles to emphasize local origins of the oil.

Elan   Hawaii

[Roland BOURDEIX]

Hugh,

 

I remember these dwarfs in Jamaica, especially a strange yellow fruited palm with a sinous stem and ver low vertical growth. After the introductions made in 1930 and 1960, what happened to these varieties in Jamaica ? were they used for breeding purposes, I mean making F2, F3, etc...or even as parental material to produce hybrids? Were they released to some farmers or gardeners in Jamaica ?

 

Most of gardens in French Polynesia are now planted with compact dwarfs and there is a huge genetic diversity...

 

Kind regards

 

Roland

 

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De: coc...@googlegroups.com de la part de Hugh Harries
Date: ven. 27/05/2011 18:38
À: coc...@googlegroups.com
Objet : Re: [Coconut:4244] Dwarf Coconuts

[elan sun star]

I just found this old e mail

i will photograph some of the hawaiian varieties of dwarfs. 

Thanks for this thread.

Elan