The Coco de Mer: The Seed Sailors Thought Grew Underwater

Somewhere on the remote islands of Praslin and Curieuse in the Seychelles, a palm tree is quietly growing the world's largest seed. It takes six to seven years to mature on the tree. When it finally falls, it weighs up to 25 kilograms - heavier than a car tyre - and stretches nearly half a metre long. It also looks unmistakably like a human pelvis and buttocks.

A Shape That Made Scientists Blush

The Coco de Mer (Lodoicea maldivica) earned its original scientific name from that silhouette. Botanists once called it Lodoicea callipyge - a Latin-Greek hybrid meaning "beautiful buttocks." In Seychellois Creole it goes by coco fesse, which translates, without much subtlety, to "bum coconut." The shape is not a loose interpretation. The two-lobed, bilobed form mirrors the human lower body in a way that startled European explorers, inspired fertility legends, and remains the single most distinctive thing about the plant.

Found on Only Two Islands on Earth

The wild Coco de Mer palm grows naturally on just two islands in the world: Praslin and Curieuse, both in the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Roughly 8,000 mature wild trees remain. The Vallee de Mai forest on Praslin - where dense stands grow almost exactly as they did before humans arrived - is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Nut That Was Royalty

Before the Seychelles was discovered by Europeans in 1768, the enormous husks occasionally washed ashore in the Maldives and along Indian Ocean coastlines. Nobody knew where they came from - the prevailing theory was a mythical tree at the bottom of the sea. Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II offered a fortune for one. Middle Eastern princes paid enormous sums for a nut they could not identify. When sailors finally found the source, the government immediately declared the trees crown property.

Strictly Controlled Today

The Coco de Mer is now classified as Endangered by the IUCN. Taking a wild nut is a serious offence - poachers face fines of thousands of dollars and possible imprisonment. Legal nuts are heavily regulated: each must be polished or hollowed and accompanied by a numbered government permit. A single legally purchased nut can cost £500 to £2,000 depending on size. Whole viable seeds cannot be exported at all - only hollowed shells are permitted to leave the Seychelles.