Are coconuts nuts or fruits?

Question

I made a recipe that contains coconut milk and I will be serving it to 2 people with nuts allergies (they can die if they eat nuts).

So I was wondering if coconuts are nuts??? Thank you!
And it would be nice if you add a website, please!

Answer 1

i guess fruit

Answer 2

Though its name suggests that it is a nut, I've always regarded coconut as a fruit. When the coconut is young, it has properties like fruit, and as it matures, it becomes more nutty. But in fact it is not a nut or a fruit; it is a seed.



Unless it is picked, a matured coconut eventually drops from the tree. The fully developed hard shell does not crack easily. Dry and brown, the coconut may sit underneath the tree for months and appear as if it were dead, until one day a green shoot pushes its way out of the shell. The whole time the old coconut has been sitting under the tree, changes have been slowly taking place inside. At one end of the coconut (where the eyes are), an embryo starts growing, feeding off the juice and nutrition of the thick white flesh. This embryo develops into a creamy mass that gradually fills much of the empty space inside. It is good to eat – sweet, somewhat spongy and less fibrous than the matured meat.

Answer 3

Evidently it is both first you have the outer layer as in photo in link below, when it it peeled away is the brown outer shell and the edible insides are know as the "meat or the "fruit". I would ask your friends if the allergy includes the coconuts better to ask than to have them go to the hospital or even worse.



I had to look this up I didn't know either.

Many botanists would say that it’s both a nut and a fruit.



Nuts are a type of fruit. So are berries, and even grains. A fruit is the part of the plant that carries the seeds, so a fruit can range in shape from a watermelon to a tomato to an acorn.



Fruits are divided into about 14 different categories, and nuts are one of those categories. What makes a nut a nut is basically its dry, hard shell – and the fact that it usually contains only one seed. A coconut is the largest known seed in the world.

http://www.earthsky.org/faq/is-a-coconut-a-nut-or-a-fruit



The outer layer of a coconut is known as the mesocarp. Coconuts in the store are usually stripped of their mesocarps, but if you have a chance to see a coconut in nature, you will see the thick fibers which cover the fruit. These fibers are known as coir, and they are used in rope making and textiles in some regions of the tropics. Coir fiber is very strong and durable, although it can also be a bit itchy.



The next layer of the coconut is the endocarp, which is the hard hull of the fruit which most people see when they buy whole coconuts at market. The endocarp protects the tender fleshy endosperm, the meat of the coconut. You may also note that a coconut has several soft depressions, which are designed to allow the embryo to grow if a coconut is fertilized and allowed to mature.

http://www.wisegeek.com/is-a-coconut-a-fruit-or-a-nut.htm

Answer 4

Though its name suggests that it is a nut, I've always regarded coconut as a fruit. When the coconut is young, it has properties like fruit, and as it matures, it becomes more nutty. But in fact it is not a nut or a fruit; it is a seed.



Unless it is picked, a matured coconut eventually drops from the tree. The fully developed hard shell does not crack easily. Dry and brown, the coconut may sit underneath the tree for months and appear as if it were dead, until one day a green shoot pushes its way out of the shell. The whole time the old coconut has been sitting under the tree, changes have been slowly taking place inside. At one end of the coconut (where the eyes are), an embryo starts growing, feeding off the juice and nutrition of the thick white flesh. This embryo develops into a creamy mass that gradually fills much of the empty space inside. It is good to eat – sweet, somewhat spongy and less fibrous than the matured meat.



The embryo eventually sprouts out of the shell and becomes a young coconut seedling. At this point, the plant can survive for several more weeks or months on the food and water inside as roots gradually develop and extend out of the shell to anchor the plant in the ground. Nutritious coconut meat can sustain life for a long time; one of my students, who is a horticulturist, has successfully used coconut milk to nurse seedlings of other plants in his greenhouse. Coconut palms lead a long productive life. They begin bearing fruits at the age of five to seven years and continue to do so until they are seventy to eighty years old.



As complete seed packages, coconuts have been known to travel to faraway lands to find new homesteads. Stories abound of coconuts floating their way across seas and oceans to be washed ashore on distant islands, rooting themselves in handsome groves to greet visiting humans in search of paradise. The dehusked coconuts you buy at the supermarket, however, are no longer productive seed packages. Once the husk is removed, the seed dies.



Hope this helps



Coco Joes

Answer 5

When it comes to serving someone who is as allergic to something as you say they are - you ask THEM what they will react to.



There is no one here who knows their individual medical history nor what all what else they are allergic to. So you should not be trying to guess at what will happen to them.



What if you research turns up that they are not nuts BUT they happen to be allergic to coconut milk as well?



Being able to say "but the guy on Yahoo Answers said it would be ok...." is no consolation when you are calling 911 for someone who has gone into shock because you hid something in their food that they are allergic to.



You ask them - not the internet.

Answer 6

all i know is its good for you. here is a link. hope it would help

coconut is not nuts, its fruits.

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut

Answer 8

tis a seed

Answer 9

dude if that was the consequences..

that they could D-I-E

WHYYYY would u even put it at risk?

Answer 10

jaja fruit!!! i´m a chef.