"1 Plant, 100 Uses" explores the many ways familiar Indian plants, leaves, fruits and trees have been part of everyday life — from food and farming to homes, traditions and natural remedies. Each story takes one plant and uncovers the surprising ways people have found it useful, often across generations.

For generations, the coconut palm has been part of everyday life along India’s coast.

The tree stands beside homes, along fields and near backwaters, giving something useful at almost every stage of its life. The tender coconut is opened for its water. The mature fruit is used in curries, chutneys, and sweets. Its kernel is dried or pressed for oil. The husk becomes coir. The hard shell can become fuel, charcoal, or a bowl. Leaves are woven into baskets and used for thatching. An old trunk can find its way into furniture or farm structures.

For communities that have lived with coconut palms for generations, the question was rarely what to throw away. It was what could be done with what remained.

The Coconut Development Board itself lists an extraordinary range of uses for the tree, including food, oil, thatching, baskets, mats, rope, furniture, charcoal, brooms, fans, containers and household implements.

That is how the coconut earned its old name, ‘Kalpavriksha’, the tree of abundance.

It begins with the fruit

A coconut has more than one use.

A young coconut is valued for its water. As it matures, the soft kernel becomes firm and develops into the white flesh used in cooking. The Coconut Development Board notes that coconuts are harvested at different stages depending on how they are going to be used.

In coastal kitchens, the mature kernel is grated into curries and chutneys, made into coconut milk or dried to produce copra. The kernel is also pressed for coconut oil, which has long been used in cooking as well as in soaps, cosmetics and hair oils.

One fruit can therefore serve several purposes before anything is left behind. And even then, the useful parts are not finished.

The husk becomes coir

The thick husk surrounding the coconut is one of the best examples of this way of thinking.

It contains a strong natural fibre called coir. Traditionally, coconut husks were........

© The Better India