By Gardener Jack THE coconut palm is considered the most valuable palm and is rated by some as the most valuable tree in the world. That is quite a claim when you consider the vast timber and orchard industries around the globe. A coconut palm has a lifespan of 50 to 60 years. The palms bear coconuts after about ten years and are mature when they are about 20. Once mature, a palm bears large bunches of coconut continuously. The coco-de-mer palm of Madagascar bears the largest seeds in the vegetable kingdom, huge double nuts. Here in The Bahamas the main coconut palm is the Jamaica Tall. The only downside is that it is susceptible to lethal yellowing, an insect-borne disease that quickly kills the trees. The fact that we are an island nation has helped to isolate outbreaks of lethal yellowing. Forty years ago I was able, over a period of months, to watch a quarter-mile row of coconut palms on Gorda Cay, Abaco, go from lovely beachside embellishments to dust. The yellowing started at one end of the row and in the end affected all the coconut palms on the island. By walking down the row you could see the different stages of the disease, from the yellowing of the fronds to the total collapse of the dry and powdery trunk. In order to combat lethal yellowing the Malaysian Dwarf coconut was introduced. It is a much smaller tree than the Jamaican Tall and has none of its stately grandeur. The coconuts are also smaller and vary in shades of yellow, gold and almost orange. A cross between the Malaysian Dwarf and Panama Tall led to the Maypan coconut that more closely resembles the Jamaican Tall, in colour if not in height. Coconuts fuel several industries. The coir that surrounds the shell of the nut has been used to make durable mats for years and in recent times is being used as a growth medium in hydroponics. The shells themselves are worked into ornaments for the tourist product. Inside the shell is coconut water. A full but green coconut has more than a cupful of water and this is canned in countries like Thailand and Jamaica and imported to The Bahamas. Island mothers have long known that coconut water serves as an electrolyte and helps revive children that have become dehydrated through diarrhea or fever. Mix the water with grated coconut meat and allow to stand and you get coconut milk. If coconut milk is gently heated, then coconut cream rises to the top in small amounts and can be skimmed off for use in confectionery or alcoholic drinks like Mai Tai. The heating process also expresses oil from the meat but this is not the 'palm oil' of commerce that comes from a completely different type of palm. The trunks of coconut palms are supple and help the palm survive hurricane force winds. If a palm is blown over it will continue to grow from the roots that remain in the ground, and the end of the horizontal palm will turn vertical. This habit led owners of coconut plantations to deliberately push over mature trees using bulldozers. Once the ends of the palms had righted themselves the harvesting of nuts was made much easier. All that said, the reason why most of us grow coconut palms is not for the nuts and the bounty they provide but for their beauty. A juvenile coconut palm, before it develops a trunk, is a magical addition to the landscape. Mature trees make a strong tropical statement. Bordering a white sand crescent beach at sunset they exude romance. gardenerjack@coralwave.com