They say that the fruit doesn’t fall too far from the tree. But Are there trees where the fruit does fall far from the tree?
Supposedly coconuts are designed to roll into the sea and float somewhere fertile. Don’t know if it’s true or not though.
If you’re thinking of the brown hairy type of coconut that you get at halloween, unfortunately that’s wrong. That coconut is the nut of a big greenish bastard of an inedible fruit. This however, is designed to float to other islands et cetera. As for the rolling part - I don’t think so. Not especially anyway - it’s no rounder than a beef tomato, and certainly a lot less round than a grape, say - neither of which are designed to “roll”. Couple this with the fact that these Coconut fruit would fall on a beach or sandy soil, and the chances that they would roll are very slim indeed.
As for the op, the only instance I can think of is where a bird will eat the fruit of a tree / bush and then poop the remains miles away. But I’m pretty sure that this is not what is meant.
Finally, if there was a situation where this was true, and the fruit did fall far from the tree, then the saying wouldn’t be as good - it means that fruit cannot fall far from a tree, therefore someones offspring will turn out quite like them…
Sycamore seeds and other winged seeds such as elm and birch are technically ‘fruits’ (or contain fruits) - these are adapted so that gentle winds are likely to carry them away from the tree, other trees (Poplars, I think) employ cottony fluff for much the same reason.
Depending on the species and the environment, it may not be ideal (for either the offspring or the parent) to have a sprout in the vicinity of the parent plant. Out of such circumstances have evolved a plethora of seed dispersal mechanisms (A children’s site, I believe. Not very scientific, but hey…it works)
So even if the fruit does not fall far from the tree, if it is tasty enough, sticky enough, aerodynamic enough, or buoyant enough…it might not stay there long.
Fruit falling from the branches of a tree overhanging a large canyon or cliff would fall pretty far from the tree.
Q.E.D.
Green coconuts are very edible, and delicious too! When I visited Tahiti, my host was very adept at whacking off the crown of a green coconut with a machete, then fashioning a spoon out of the top. The flesh within is translucent and gelatinous, and very sweet. I ate green coconut every day for over a week (and gained about seven pounds!).
The liquid inside is also good. In Brasil they would slice the top off and give you a straw. When you finished drinking it they’d cur it open and give the the spoon you described…
How odd! We get pumpkins here.
I just assumed that Achilles’ Halloween costume was always the same…and consists of a coconut bra and a grass skirt. 
Are you saying coconuts migrate?
Not without the help of a swallow.
Does it count if the fruit goes through the bowels of an animal first?
Yes?
African or European?
It is my impression (from various documentaries, picture postcards etc) that coconut trees near the shoreline tend to lean out toward the water (presumably some kind of tropism caused by environmental factors such as prevailing winds etc) - if this is the case, then the coconuts would be quite likely to fall on the beach where a high tide would lift them.