According to local legends on a night lit by a full moon in the archipelago of the Seychelles a thick mist is covering the jungle. In this thick sweet mist lovers are mating, interlocked in a mystic dance. These lovers are no humans but the old endemic palm trees on the Seychelles. At the climax of the mating dance palm leaves are intertwined and sweet flowers bloom in the air. This ritual will bring ensure the coming generations of the forest.
The palm tree mentioned in this legend is de "Coco de mer" or "Lodoicea Maldivica". The later name is a Latinised for of Louis, referring to King Louis XV. This palm tree is an endemic sort of the Seychelles and the coco de mer palm tree has separated male and female trees. Seeing the shape of the enormous female coconut and the male catkin, which can grow up to 1 meter in length, it is not difficult to imagine numerous love myths being created about this tree.
The erotic curves of the fruit and flowers of the Coco de mer was enough to let general Charles George Gordon proclaim the Seychelles as the real Garden of Eden in the 19th century.
Nowadays most of the Seychelles are declared a UNESCO World Heritage and are well protected.
1 comments:
"Como ves" (www.comoves.unam.mx) is a science magazine for high school students and young adults published and subsidized by the National Autonomous University of Mexico. We are currently preparing an article on the Seychelles coconuts, and would like to use some of your photos to illustrate it.
I would like to know if this is possible.
Yours faithfully
Isabelle Marmasse
Assistant Editor
imarmase@universum.unam.mx
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