The coconut palm is common in tropical regions all over the world. The nut is covered in a fibrous outer coating on the tree and all parts of the tree are useful, the trunks for timber, the leaves for thatch, the fibrous husk produces coir the starting material for ropes and coconut matting and the nuts are used for food. Unripe nuts contain coconut milk. The nut is best kept by shelling and then freezing. Filberts are high in vitamin E and fat, mostly monounsaturated.
Filberts sucker eagerly and grow as shrubs if unpruned.
Pruned they become small rounded trees. The yellow catkins bloom in December. They may be eaten dry, raw , or roasted like chestnuts. In North Africa, the tubers are generally ground and used in forcemeats for poultry, meatballs and spice mixtures. It also yields an oil, which has a lower freezing point than water and does not turn rancid and a flour used in confectionary.