Coconut (Nariyal) Tree (Cocos nucifera): Where It Grows in India and How to Plant It

Coconut, called nariyal (नारियल) in Hindi and Cocos nucifera by botanists, is a tall palm with a single woody stem that grows best along India's warm, humid coasts and islands. It is the only species in its genus (Flowers of India), and an ICAR-CPCRI bulletin (2018) notes that it is called Kalpavriksha, the tree of heaven, because every part of it is useful. The same bulletin says Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh together hold more than 90 per cent of India's coconut area and production.

Photo: "Goa, India 31 Coconut tree with bird's nests" by Fredericknoronha, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It is a palm, but it behaves like a tree: one trunk, one crown and a working life of decades. It needs steady warmth, humid air, full sun and a lot of water, so, put plainly, coconut will not do well in Rajasthan or in other dry, cold-winter parts of north-west India.

Quick facts

Scientific name	Cocos nucifera L. (accepted name, Kew WCVP via GBIF)
Family	Arecaceae (palm family)
Hindi name	नारियल (Nariyal); also written narel or naryal (Flora of Pakistan)
English names	Coconut, coconut palm, coconut tree
Other names	Naral (नारळ) and Shriphal (Marathi), Narlu (Konkani), Tennai (தென்னை, Tamil), Thengu (Malayalam), Kobbari (Telugu) (Flowers of India); Narikel (Bengali, ICRAF); Kalpavriksha
Type of plant	A palm with one unbranched woody stem and no side branches
Mature height	Roughly 15–18 m for tall types and 5–7 m for dwarf types (ICAR-CPCRI)
First nuts	Roughly 5–7 years after planting for tall types, 3–4 years for dwarfs (ICAR-CPCRI)
Flowering	Through the whole year (Flora of Pakistan)
Climate	Mean temperature roughly 27 °C (±5 °C) and humidity above 60 per cent; grows well up to roughly 600 m (ICAR-CPCRI)
Water need	High: ICAR-CPCRI gives roughly 2,000 mm of well-spread rain a year as best, otherwise irrigation
Planting season	With the monsoon, mostly May–July; October–November only on the east coast, where the main rains come with the north-east monsoon; months are a guide
Grows well in	The west and east coasts, the islands and the humid south
Not suitable	Rajasthan, the north-west dry zone, the northern plains and the Himalaya (our assessment)
Conservation status	Not yet assessed on the IUCN Red List (GBIF record checked October 2026)