# Going Coconuts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 6, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348 "2011-04-06T02:19:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/1 "2011-04-06T02:19:53Z")
[Link to column about falling coconuts](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2405/are-150-people-killed-each-year-by-falling-coconuts) I recall this was a very real concern in Hawaii and that the local government would routinely harvest them from the trees or at least issue warnings to be careful. But in the 2-1/2 years we lived there, I don’t recall any actual coconut injuries. Quite a few shark attacks occurred, though. Here in Thailand, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone getting conked by a coconut, but I always look up whenever I’m around the trees. ---
**Author:** ![NiceGuyJack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/niceguyjack/32/3069_2.png) [@NiceGuyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NiceGuyJack)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/2 "2011-04-06T12:39:56Z")
I almost got hit by a coconut in Thailand. I was at a resort on a beach under a palm tree reading a book. I suddenly heard a heavy “thud” sound near my head and saw this huge coconut had fallen maybe half a meter from my head. Until then, I had never thought that sitting under a palm tree could be deadly. I moved away from the tree and for the rest of the day, indeed the rest of my vacation I kept seeing my own tombstone in my head with my name and “DEATH BY COCONUT” written underneath. Come to think of it, I seem to recall posting about this experience on SD. It was years ago though so I can’t remember when if indeed I had posted about it. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/3 "2011-04-06T14:00:45Z")
When I was in Bali, a local man told me (with a twinkle in his eye) that “Uncle Coconut Tree would \*never \*allow such a thing to happen!” S’okay…I think I’ll move my chair to the other edge of the beach, anyway. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/4 "2011-04-07T02:04:28Z")
I was surprised when I first learned they came in those green husks. On _Gilligan’s Island_, they always fell off the tree husked. We started watching _The Pacific_ last night, and they had it right when one guy managed to hack through the husk to find the shell and asked: “_Now_ what do I do?” ---
**Author:** ![Tommy\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Tommy\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_C)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/5 "2011-07-13T11:07:07Z")
[quote=“Siam\_Sam, post:1, topic:577348”] [Link to column about falling coconuts](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2405/are-150-people-killed-each-year-by-falling-coconuts) My job occasionally involves removing sprouting coconuts from around coconut trees in Queensland, Australia (they are a non-native species here and therefore a “weed”), so I guess that puts me in a high-risk category. I have to put “impact injury from falling coconut” on the risk assessment and warn my team to check above their heads and minimise the time they spend in the “drop zone”. However, on any given day spent on this task, involving dozens of trees, I probably see maybe one coconut fall (assuming average wind). The chances of someone being struck, let alone killed, therefore seem rather small (but also rather difficult to quantify!). ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/6 "2011-07-13T12:46:00Z")
> [@NiceGuyJack](#): > > Until then, I had never thought that sitting under a palm tree could be deadly. > I moved away from the tree and for the rest of the day, indeed the rest of my vacation I kept seeing my own tombstone in my head with my name and “DEATH BY COCONUT” written underneath. That would be a pretty cool tombstone! If I live into my mid-90s, I think I’ll move to a place with lots of coconut trees, and spend as much of my remaining time as possible sitting in their shade. If I didn’t get hit by a coconut, it would probably be a pleasant and relaxing way to spend my senescence, and if I did, I’d get the cool tombstone! ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/7 "2011-07-13T15:14:47Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > [Link to column about falling coconuts](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2405/are-150-people-killed-each-year-by-falling-coconuts) > > I recall this was a very real concern in Hawaii and that the local government would routinely harvest them from the trees or at least issue warnings to be careful. But in the 2-1/2 years we lived there, I don’t recall any actual coconut injuries. Quite a few shark attacks occurred, though. > > Here in Thailand, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone getting conked by a coconut, but I always look up whenever I’m around the trees. How about Durian?- [Ouch](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1CM_PcRl5-Q/Sech3fGc74I/AAAAAAAACls/6GhQtPGcZFg/s800/durian_malaysia.jpg&imgrefurl=http://positivemen.blogspot.com/2009/04/under-durian-tree.html&usg=__PPk4DIG0L_gZ_BVwxWLkS4ruu5w=&h=548&w=730&sz=141&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=0yXOK4Qgaffx2M:&tbnh=106&tbnw=141&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddurian%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1R2ADRA_enUS408%26sout%3D1%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D596%26tbm%3Disch&ei=CbUdTuG9Iqff0QHi5-y5Bw) Anyone ever get hit by those mammas? Even bigger than coconuts, aren’t they? Doesn’t look like chance of survival from a solid hit is very good. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/8 "2011-07-13T15:23:58Z")
They do look like medieval war weapons. I’d hate to get smacked in the face with one of those by some Bozo swinging it around. But I don’t think the trees grow much higher than 2 meters. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/9 "2011-07-13T16:11:50Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > They do look like medieval war weapons. I’d hate to get smacked in the face with one of those by some Bozo swinging it around. But I don’t think the trees grow much higher than 2 meters. Per wiki they may grow to 50 meters. Maybe cultivated trees are pruned much shorter, but it sounds like you had better be careful on those back country hiking expeditions. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/10 "2011-07-13T16:27:30Z")
I can’t say I’ve seen a 50-meter-high durian tree. Maybe I wasn’t looking up. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/11 "2011-07-13T17:30:28Z")
**Tommy C** , don’t you wear a helmet on a job like that? And how rigid are those spikes on a durian? If they’re hard, they’d make it more dangerous, but if they’re flexible, they could cushion the impact like a Koosh ball. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/12 "2011-07-13T17:57:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > **Tommy C** , don’t you wear a helmet on a job like that? > > And how rigid are those spikes on a durian? If they’re hard, they’d make it more dangerous, but if they’re flexible, they could cushion the impact like a Koosh ball. I do not think durian spikes are anything like a koosh ball. Maybe Sam can tell us more about it. One good thing about durian is that they literally stink. My brother has a Thai wife and has been to the county several times. He says they smell like raw sewage to him (but God do they taste good!) Anyway, the smell is so strong that you are likley to be alerted well before you step into the range of falling fruit. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/13 "2011-07-14T02:36:25Z")
I stay as far, far away as I can from the evil durian fruit. Nasty stuff. Being hit on the head with it would definitely be preferable to choking it down. It’s therefore been a long time since I handled one. But they’re certainly not as hard as a coconut. Maybe not like a koosh ball – maybe rubbery, like hard rubber? – but I’d not like to get whomped on the head with one, although again, that would be preferable to eating it. They do NOT taste good. They taste like a three-month-old corpse left to stew in raw sewage. The smell is even worse. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/14 "2011-07-14T03:48:53Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I stay as far, far away as I can from the evil durian fruit. Nasty stuff. Being hit on the head with it would definitely be preferable to choking it down. It’s therefore been a long time since I handled one. But they’re certainly not as hard as a coconut. Maybe not like a koosh ball – maybe rubbery, like hard rubber? – but I’d not like to get whomped on the head with one, although again, that would be preferable to eating it. > > They do NOT taste good. They taste like a three-month-old corpse left to stew in raw sewage. The smell is even worse. Hahaha maybe it was a bad year for durian when you tried them. You do like mangosteen, don’t you? My impression is that mangosteen is impossible not to like, and it doesn’t have a bad smell, either. But getting back to durian, here is what the great naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace (codiscoverer of Evolution) had to say about them: [Durian](http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S027.htm) > [@](#): > > (T)he Durian… is a fruit of a perfectly unique character; we have nothing with which it can be compared, and it is therefore the more difficult to judge whether it is or is not superior to all other fruits. > > The Durian grows on a large and lofty forest-tree, something resembling an Elm in character, but with a more smooth and scaly bark. The fruit is round or slightly oval, about the size of a small melon, of a green colour, and covered with strong spines, the bases of which touch each other, and are consequently somewhat hexagonal, while the points are very strong and sharp. It is so completely armed that if the stalk is broken off it is a difficult matter to lift one from the ground. The outer rind is so thick and tough that from whatever height it may fall it is never broken. From the base to the apex five very faint lines may be traced, over which the spines somewhat curve and approximate; these are the sutures of the carpels, and show where the fruit may be opened with a heavy knife and a strong hand. The five cells are silky-white within, and are filled with a mass of firm, cream-coloured pulp, containing about three seeds each. This pulp is the eatable part, and its consistence and flavour are indescribable. A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid nor sweet nor juicy; yet it wants neither of these qualities, for it is in itself perfect. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat Durians is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience. > > The smell of the ripe fruit is certainly at first disagreeable, though less so when it has newly fallen from the tree; for the moment it is ripe it falls of itself, and the only way to eat Durians in perfection is to get them as they fall. It would perhaps not be correct to say that the Durian is the best of all fruits, because it cannot supply the place of subacid juicy fruits such as the orange, grape, mango, and mangosteen, whose refreshing and cooling qualities are so grateful; but as producing a food of the most exquisite flavour it is unsurpassed. If I had to fix on two only as representing the perfection of the two classes, I should certainly choose the Durian and the Orange as the king and queen of fruits. > > The Durian is however (in another way) dangerous. As a tree ripens the fruit falls daily and almost hourly, and accidents not unfrequently happen to persons walking or working under them. When a Durian strikes a man in its fall it produces a fearful wound, the strong spines tearing open the flesh, while the blow itself is very heavy; but from this very circumstance death rarely ensues, the copious effusion of blood preventing the inflammation which might otherwise take place. A Dyak chief informed me that he had been struck down by a Durian falling on his head, which he thought would certainly have caused his death, yet he recovered in a very short time… > > The unripe Durian makes a very good vegetable, and it is also eaten raw. In a good fruit season the Dyaks preserve quantities of the pulp salted in jars and bamboos, in which state it will keep the year round, and is much esteemed as a relish with their rice. They seem hardly to appreciate the ripe fruit in its perfection, from the quantities they gather unripe, and from the small value they place upon it, as compared with the Jack and some other fruits. In Borneo great numbers of Durian trees have been planted on the mountains occupied by the Dyaks, and on the rivers’ banks in the interior. In the jungle are found two varieties with much smaller fruits, one of them of an orange-colour inside; and these are probably the originals of the large and fine Durians which seem never to be produced in a wild state. In the tropics as well as in our colder climates, fruits always seem to be improved by cultivation. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/15 "2011-07-14T03:58:24Z")
There is no good year for durian. Alfred Russell Wallace was obviously delirious from malaria. But yes, mangosteen is really good. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/16 "2011-07-14T05:36:26Z")
Heinlein described the taste of durian as “A little like a cantaloupe, and a little like a pineapple, but mostly like itself”. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-coconuts/577348/17 "2011-07-15T14:32:03Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I recall this was a very real concern in Hawaii and that the local government would routinely harvest them from the trees or at least issue warnings to be careful. But in the 2-1/2 years we lived there, I don’t recall any actual coconut injuries. Maybe the government’s “Coconut Death Mitigation Project” is working, then?