- Where
- Praslin, Seychelles, in the western Indian Ocean
- Coordinates
- 4.3300° S, 55.7400° E
- Biome
- Endemic palm forest, close to its primeval state
- The palm
- Lodoicea maldivica — grows naturally only on Praslin and Curieuse
- The seed
- The largest of any plant; weights reported from about 20 kg upward
- Also here
- All six of Seychelles' endemic palms, and the black parrot
- Status
- UNESCO World Heritage, 1983; within Praslin National Park
- Best visited
- Year-round; early morning on a weekday for birds and quiet
Stood under a leaf bigger than a dining table and watched a nut the size of a curled-up child hang there doing nothing at all, which is apparently what it does for years. Something pollinates them. Nobody knows what. I found that enormously cheering — an entire forest, studied for centuries, still declining to explain itself.
The short answer
The Vallée de Mai is a small palm forest in the middle of the island of Praslin, in Seychelles, protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1983 and managed by the Seychelles Islands Foundation. It holds roughly four thousand coco de mer palms — Lodoicea maldivica — which produce the largest seed of any plant on Earth, a double-lobed nut whose reported weights start around twenty kilograms. It is the only place in Seychelles where all six of the country's endemic palm species grow together, and it is essential habitat for the Seychelles black parrot, the national bird, which lives on Praslin and nowhere else.
Why it's worth knowing
Some places are remarkable because of what is known about them. This one is remarkable because of what still isn't.
The coco de mer was famous long before anyone had seen the tree. Nuts washed up on beaches in the Indian Ocean — in the Maldives, which is why the species carries maldivica in a name that has nothing to do with where it grows. Since no one could find the plant, an explanation was constructed: the nut came from a tree growing on the sea floor. Hence coco de mer, the coconut of the sea. The nuts were traded as objects of enormous value, acquired a religious significance in India, and reached European courts as curiosities.
Then the tree was found, on two small islands, and the mythology adapted rather than retreating. In the nineteenth century General Charles Gordon — the same Gordon later killed at Khartoum — visited Praslin and produced a detailed argument that the Vallée de Mai was the Garden of Eden and that the coco de mer was the tree of knowledge. The nut's shape, which is unmistakably and famously suggestive of a human pelvis, did a good deal of the work in his case.
That is where most tellings stop: an odd nut, an odd Victorian, a good story.
But the interesting part is current. The Seychelles Islands Foundation, which manages the reserve, states plainly that the pollination of the coco de mer is unresolved. Flying insects, wind, skinks, bats, geckos and slugs have all been proposed. Research is ongoing. The species is also being studied for how it manages to produce the largest seed in the plant kingdom on notably poor soil — and the work is slow, because the palm is slow: each stage of its life cycle can take decades, which means basic figures about its growth remain approximate.
A forest four thousand palms deep, on an island people have lived on for two hundred years, in a reserve with a visitor centre and a car park, and the fundamental question of how the thing reproduces is open.
The field notes
The largest seed, and how large is disputed
The coco de mer's seed is the largest of any plant, and beyond that the figures spread out considerably.
Natural World Heritage Sites gives a bi-lobed nut weighing as much as 20 kg. Other accounts give up to 25 kg. A Dallas Morning News travel piece reports nuts reaching 66 pounds — about 30 kg — with a record of 95 pounds, close to 43. Lengths of around 50 centimetres are commonly quoted.
The palms themselves are given as up to about 34 metres, with leaves said to exceed one and a half metres across. A guide quoted in the same travel piece described the palms as producing one leaf a year — a striking claim, and one reported here as a guide's account rather than as a measured figure.
Why the spread? Partly record-hunting: the heaviest nut ever weighed is a different quantity from a typical mature nut. And partly the SIF's own point — the species is so long-lived and so slow that reliable numbers are genuinely hard to gather, and research is still narrowing them.
Six palms and a parrot
The Vallée de Mai is the only place in Seychelles where all six endemic palm species occur together. Alongside the coco de mer are the millionaire's salad (Deckenia nobilis), the thief palm (Phoenicophorium borsigianum), the Seychelles stilt palm (Verschaffeltia splendida), the latanier millepattes (Nephrosperma vanhoutteanum) and the latanier palm (Roscheria melanochaetes).
UNESCO's inscription describes the forest as a living laboratory — a picture of what tropical vegetation looked like before more advanced plant families arrived, preserved in something close to its primeval state.
The Seychelles black parrot is the national bird, lives only on Praslin, and depends on the Vallée de Mai and the palm forest around it. Research by the Seychelles Islands Foundation led to its recognition as a distinct species, Coracopsis barklyi, rather than a subspecies; the IUCN lists it as Vulnerable. A census in 2018 estimated 1,382 individuals. It is heard far more often than seen — a whistle, not a squawk.
The forest also produced one of the better rediscovery stories in island biology: the Seychelles chameleon, unrecorded for close to two centuries, was found here again.
Endangered, and by what
The coco de mer was uplisted by the IUCN Red List from Vulnerable to Endangered, and the reasons are specific: poaching and fire.
The nuts are valuable. Legal sale is licensed and controlled, each authorised nut carrying documentation, precisely because an unmarked nut has a market. Removing seeds from the forest removes the next generation of a palm that takes decades to reach maturity, which makes poaching a slow-motion problem that is very hard to reverse.
Fire is the other threat, on a small island with a dry season and an extremely flammable palm forest.
The reserve is managed by the Seychelles Islands Foundation, which also manages Aldabra — Seychelles' other World Heritage site — and has run projects targeting invasive species across both.
- Go early on a weekday. The forest is small, and it is a different place with nobody in it.
- Stop walking and listen for the parrot, which you will hear before you see.
- Look up at a coco de mer leaf from directly underneath.
- Take the high viewpoint on one of the trails and look down on the whole canopy.
- Buy a nut only if it comes with its paperwork, and understand what the paperwork is for.
A licensed coco de mer, with its certificate. A legally sold nut carries documentation identifying it — a permit for a seed. It is one of the few objects a traveller can hold that is simultaneously a botanical record-holder, a piece of five-hundred-year-old maritime folklore, and a conservation instrument.
Tally, in the marginHeavier than expected and stranger than described. I put it down and picked it up again twice, purely to check.
Getting there
Seychelles sits in the western Indian Ocean, with international flights arriving at Mahé. Praslin is reached from there by a short domestic flight of about fifteen minutes, or by fast ferry in roughly an hour.
The Vallée de Mai is inland, near the middle of the island, a short drive from Baie Sainte Anne or the Côte d'Or. Hire cars, taxis and buses all serve it, and guided walks with transfer are widely available.
At the reserve. There is a visitor centre with an education room and a café, and the site is the first natural attraction in Seychelles made accessible to wheelchair users. Several marked trails run through the forest — a circular path, a central path and a cedar path — and none of them is long. A visit takes an hour or two depending on how much stopping you do, and the stopping is the point.
Practical notes. Opening hours run roughly 8am to 5:30pm; check current times, as they change. Guides are available at the entrance and are worth it here, because much of what is interesting is small or overhead. It rains, being an equatorial forest, and the light under the canopy is dim enough to matter for photographs. Nuts sold without official documentation should be left alone.
Entry to Seychelles requires a Travel Authorization, applied for no more than 30 days before travel, with proof of onward travel and confirmed accommodation.
Mark this place
Common questions
What is the coco de mer?
The coco de mer (Lodoicea maldivica) is a palm that grows naturally only on the Seychelles islands of Praslin and Curieuse. It produces the largest seed of any plant on Earth — a double-lobed nut with reported weights from around 20 kilograms upward. The Vallée de Mai on Praslin is its stronghold, holding roughly four thousand palms.
Why is it called the coco de mer?
Because the nuts were known long before the tree was. They washed up on Indian Ocean shores, including in the Maldives — hence maldivica — and since no one could find the plant, it was assumed to grow on a tree at the bottom of the sea. The name means "coconut of the sea," and the species name records an island group where it does not grow.
Was the Vallée de Mai really thought to be the Garden of Eden?
Yes, by at least one prominent Victorian. In the nineteenth century General Charles Gordon produced a detailed argument that the Vallée de Mai was the Garden of Eden and that the coco de mer was the tree of knowledge — a claim recorded in UNESCO's own documentation of the site's legendary history.
How much does a coco de mer nut weigh?
Reported figures vary. Natural World Heritage Sites gives up to about 20 kg, other accounts up to 25 kg, and a travel report cites nuts of 66 pounds with a record of 95 pounds. Record weights and typical weights are different measurements, and the Seychelles Islands Foundation notes that the species' slowness makes reliable figures hard to gather.
What pollinates the coco de mer?
It is not established. The Seychelles Islands Foundation states that several possibilities have been proposed — flying insects, wind, skinks, bats, geckos and slugs — and that research is ongoing. Despite centuries of interest in the plant, the question remains open.
What is the Seychelles black parrot?
The Seychelles black parrot (Coracopsis barklyi) is the national bird of Seychelles. It lives only on Praslin and depends on the Vallée de Mai and the surrounding palm forest. Research by the Seychelles Islands Foundation established it as a distinct species; the IUCN lists it as Vulnerable, and a 2018 census estimated 1,382 individuals.
Why is the coco de mer endangered?
The IUCN uplisted the coco de mer from Vulnerable to Endangered because of overexploitation — poaching of the valuable nuts — and fire. Because the palm takes decades to reach each stage of its life cycle, removing seeds has consequences that take generations to show and to reverse.
How long does a visit to the Vallée de Mai take?
An hour to two hours covers the marked trails, which include a circular path, a central path and a cedar path, none of them long. Guided walks are available and are useful here, since much of the interest is either overhead or very small. Early mornings on weekdays are quietest and best for birdlife.