At its crown is a mass of fronds, with leaf blades fanning out nearly five meters across.
On mature individuals, the leaves are often fringed at the edges.
Their withered ends hang from the palm below the vibrant, healthy green crown.
Indeed, one of coco de mers archaic botanical name wasLodoicea callipyge, wherecallipygein Greek means beautiful buttocks.
There it was gathered from the beaches and traded with other countries.
And because it came from the Maldives, the nut was called Maldive coconut.
This is still reflected in its current scientific name,Lodoicea maldivica.
Instead it sinks to the bottom.
After spending a considerable period of time on the sea bed, the husk weakens and drops off.
Unlike the coconut palm, the coco de mer palm has separate male and female trees.
The butt-shaped nut came from the female tree while the male flowers develop into very suggestive phallic-looking catkins.
The legend goes that whoever sees the trees making love either die or go blind.
