NAVIGATION

A ‘maldivian coco’ is described in the 1737 inventory of the Royal Danish Kunstkammer at Rosenberg Castle in Copenhagen as ‘complete, rare and beautiful’. However, the mysterious and legendary ‘coco de mer’ actually comes from two of the 115 islands that make up the Seychelles in the West Indian Ocean and not from the Maldives as originally thought. The 17th century botanist Rumphius found them floating in the seas off the Maldive Islands, and so the double nuts were erroneously given the Latin name ‘Lodoicea Maladivica’ by which they have been known ever since.