Germinating The Great Borassus Species - The Other Large Seed
Palm seeds come in all shapes and sizes. I have personally worked with seeds as small as a BB gun pellet (Basellinia, Dypsis) to the well known Coconut (Cocos nucifera). One of the largest seeds in all palm genera is Borassus. As stated in Riffle and Craft's An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms, Borassus is a genus comprised of anywhere of two to twelve species, depending on which botanist you speak with. The following is a write up for proper germination of the Borassus genus. For this writeup, I will use my personal experience with Borassus aethiopium. I received a fresh fruit from a friend as a present, originally coming from the seeding pair at Fairchild Tropical Garden. If you are ever able to see an unopened fruit of this genus, it is quite a weird sight. The entire fruit is slightly larger than a coconut, but its outer husk is soft when ripe. Here is a picture of the seed I received before I proceeded to open it:
