Young Blonde Girl With Pigtails Posing Among Coconut Palms Near The Sea

The stiff mid-ribs of coconut leaves are used for making brooms in India, Indonesia (sapu lidi), Malaysia and the Philippines (walis tingting). The green of the leaves (lamina) are stripped away leaving the vein (a wooden-like, thin, long strip) which are tied together to form a broom or brush. A long handle made from some other wood may be inserted into the base of the bundle and used as a two-handed broom. The leaves also provide material for baskets that can draw well water and for roofing thatch; they can be woven into mats, cooking skewers, and kindling arrows as well. Two leaves (especially the younger, yellowish shoots) weaved into a tight shell the size of the palm are filled with rice and cooked to make ketupat. Dried coconut leaves can be burned to ash, which can be harvested for lime. In India, particularly in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the woven coconut leaves are used as 'pandals' (temporary sheds) for the marriage functions.
• Copra
Copra is the dried meat of the seed and after processing produces coconut oil and coconut meal. Coconut oil, aside from being used in cooking as an ingredient and for frying, is used in soaps and cosmetics. In Vanuatu coconut palms for copra production are generally spaced 9 meters apart, allowing a tree density of 100–160 trees per hectare.