Jay Bost has an interesting question on American coconuts:
Anyone ever explore possibility of dispersal of coconut to Americas by Polynesians? Given movement of sweet potato and chickens, any chance they brought coconut?
Anyone?
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Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Jay Bost has an interesting question on American coconuts:
Anyone ever explore possibility of dispersal of coconut to Americas by Polynesians? Given movement of sweet potato and chickens, any chance they brought coconut?
Anyone?
Gunn et al (2011) suggest that the species, “a native of the Old World tropics…was spread to eastern Polynesia and subsequently introduced to the Pacific coasts of Latin America, most likely by pre-Columbian Austronesian seafarers from the Philippines”. Figure 2. is a great schematic showing coconut dispersal routes by humans.
Clement, C.R., Zizumbo-Villarreal, D., Brown, C.H., Ward, R.G., Alves-Pereira, A. & Harries, H.C. (2013) Coconuts in the Americas. Botanical Review 79 (3) 342-370. doi:10.1007/s12229-013-9121-z
Abstract
It has been clearly established that the Portuguese introduced coconuts to the Cape Verde islands in 1499, and these supplied the Atlantic coasts and the Caribbean in the 1500s. By contrast, early 16th century reports of coconuts on the Pacific coast of Panama are controversial. Recent DNA analysis of modern coconut populations there shows them to be similar to Philippine varieties, agreeing with morphometric analysis. Hence, coconuts must have been brought by boat from the western Pacific, but no archaeological, ethnobotanical or linguistic evidence for pre-Columbian coconuts has been found. Thus, the most parsimonious explanation is that coconuts were introduced to Panama after Spanish conquest, as supported by DNA analysis and historical records of Spanish voyages. New collections along the Pacific coast, from Mexico to Colombia, are increasing the sampling for genetic analysis, and further work in the Philippines is suggested to test probable origins. Unless new archaeological discoveries prove otherwise, the strong hypothesis of Philippine origin should direct future research on the sources of American Pacific coast coconuts.
Keywords: Cocos nucifera; Molecular genetics; History; Archaeology; Linguistics; Ethnobotany