Dear Luc and Hugh,

Let's agree to discard Bactris from the discussion, as no Bactris has fruits large enough to fit with Oviedo's description of the size of a head (cited by Zizumbo & Quero, 1998). Both Patiño (1963) and Zizumbo & Quero (1998) suggest that the figure in Oviedo is probably that of Bactris major, the cane palm, which is described by Oviedo on the same page that he starts describing coconut.

There are also no Attaleas in that area with fruit large enough to meet Oviedo's description. A. butyracea is a large enough palm, but the fruit are only 8.5 cm long by 4.5 cm diameter (Henderson, 1995, Palms of the Americas), which is the wrong shape. Hence, we can discard Attalea also.

That leaves coconut as the most like "cocos" mentioned by Oviedo. Patiño (1963) discusses the origins of Oviedo's knowledge about cocos and shows that he probably learned about the species and its importance while in Spain, where numerous reports were coming in from India and Southeast Asia about its importance there. Many of the uses he describes may be from those reports, as Native Americans apparently had much less use for it (Patiño, 1963), which is contrary to Zizumbo & Quero's (1998) interpretation. There are also very few indigenous names for coconut in that area (Patiño, 1963), again suggesting lack of importance and possible a recent arrival, rather than the 2,250 y proposal in Gunn et al. (2011). Luc already commented in a private e-mail exchange that he is not convinced about the 2,250 y date, which is probably too early to be due to humans.

I find the microsatelite analysis by Gunn et al. (2011) to be quite convincing, and the historical documental analysis by Patiño (1963) and Zizumbo & Quero (1998) strongly suggests that the Panama coconuts were present before the Spanish started introducing more coconut from the Philippines. As I wrote to Luc, 2,250 y is a long shot, but the idea of a Chinese introduction in 1421 (Gavin Menzies, The year China discovered America, Harper Perennial) is dicey and may be too late for dispersal from Burica to Candelaria.

We need some archaeological information from that region of Panama to dig into this better.

Luc

In 1975, in a book on crop plant evolution, the chapter on coconut had a map showing an arrow across continental Africa from east to west. The eminent editor was willing to believe that coconuts had reached West Africa by an overland route. Nobody, before or after, has ever provided any evidence for such a claim.. On the contrary, other authorities had already suggested introduction by the Portuguese and since then research has accumulated evidence that the Cape Verde Islands were the point of first introduction and subsequent dissemination to the Caribbean and the Atlantic coasts of America and Africa. Can molecular markers shed light on the subject?

I accept the description of a coconut fruit by Oviedo but we should not forget that he was not a botanist. He was a Spanish colonial administrator and, at the time that he was writing the world had been divided in half between the Portuguese and Spanish by the Treaty of Tordesillas. From the letter written by King Manuel of Portugal in 1501 it is clear that coconuts were recognized as a vital commodity for sailing ships and by chance (or possibly by design) the Portuguese had the half with most coconuts. It was important to Oviedo to persuade the Spanish court that there were coconuts in America. He may have found a few (see Paitino, 1973, 2002) and simply assumed that the all palms were coconuts. Many years later a botanist admitted to the same mistake (Cook, O.F. (1940) An endemic palm on Cocos Island near Panama mistaken for the coconut palm. Science 91, 140-142).

I also accept your own identification of low genetic diversity in the Pacific coast coconut populations south from Mexico. But your "handful of founding individuals" is still much more likely to have arrived from the Philippines in the 16th century with the first settlers (Spaniards & Filipinos). Any earlier Austronesian introduction would probably not have survived for centuries - the coconut cannot only compete without human assistance
Hugh