A rare coconut with two seedlings

MUMBAI: In a rare phenomenon, a coconut has germinated with two seedlings at a garden in suburban Kandivali.

According to Suresh V Rao, who takes care of the garden in their Ashok Nagar apartment, the product comes from a eight year old Singapore variety of coconut tree.

"The tree yields coconut regularly, but this is the only one from which two seedlings have come out," he said.

Plant taxonomist M R Almeida considers this as a unusual case but not a miracle. "Since coconut has tricarpellary ovary, upto three such plants may be seen from one coconut which is a very rare phenomena," he said.

Botany Professor of National college in Bandra, Suchandra Dutta, said that the coconut flower has three ovaries which are enclosed by a single ovary wall (Tricarpellary ovary). Out of these three ovaries, generally one is successfully fertilized and gives rise to a coconut plant. The other two
carpels die or do not get fertilized.

The carpel is the central ovule bearing female organ of a lower compose of a modified leaf.

"Here in this case, most probably from the three carpels, two survived, instead of one, and thus two carpels seemed to have fertilized giving rise to two seedlings," Dutta said.

"There may be another possibility in this case. Maybe an early splitting of the embryo created twins!,"she added.

Presently, this plant is kept at the Botanical garden at R D National College, Bandra(W) and will be later shifted to the Maharashtra Nature park, Dharavi, Dutta said.