Coconut emblem and coat of arms. Coconut trees are grown on all the islands. Before modern construction methods were introduced, coconut leaves were used as roofing material for many houses in the islands, while coconut timber was used to build houses and boats. The main coconut-producing area in the Middle East is the Dhofar region of Oman, but they can be grown all along the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Red Sea coasts, because these seas are tropical and provide enough humidity (through seawater evaporation) for coconut trees to grow. The young coconut plants need to be nursed and irrigated with
Bush coconut Bush coconut The Bush coconut, or bloodwood apple, is an Australian bush tucker food, often eaten by Aborigines of Central Australia. The bush coconut is, in fact, a combination of plant and animal: an adult female scale insect, "Cystococcus pomiformis", lives in a gall induced on a bloodwood eucalypt ("Corymbia terminalis"). The gall looks like a small, knobbly woody fruit, ranging in size from a golf ball to a tennis ball, with a milky white flesh inside upon which the insect and its male offspring feed. Bush coconut is called Merne arrkirlpangkwerle in the Arrernte language of Central Australia. Aborigines