Cocos plantations 
The planting of Cocos began with the European discovery of the island. 
A few trees were found by Cook’s party and other nuts were planted. The 
extent of the Cocos areas was increased during the development of the 
island by Father Rougier who planted large areas on the EW, N, EE and SW 
sides of the islands comprising the plantations found along the slopes 
of the high areas. Copra production continues at present. The extension 
of the Cocos groves is being carried out at the rate of 1200 acres per 
year. This operation is under the direction of Mr. Cook the District 
Commissioner for the Line Islands. Planting is at present centered on 
the EW and E sides of the island along the highway built by the military 
during the bomb test era. The plantations have a cover of Lepturus and 
Portulaca with Boerhavia and Sida at the fringes of the open areas. Large 
acreages have been cleared of Scaevola - Tournefortia scrub. Tribulus 
thrives in some of the open areas where the newly sprouting coconuts are 
planted. Mr. Cook is expanding the facilities in the village of London 
for sprouting coconuts before planting. He has found from experience 
that better success is achieved by using this method. During 196 ^ a dry 
period browned many of the fronds on the mature trees and production was 
hampered. The groves on the SW side were particularly dry and this con¬ 
tinued into 1965 . 
The larger number of introduced species are found in the village 
at London and on the E side in the heavily disrupted area around the 
airport where facilities existed for the support of several thousand 
military personnel. Pluchea odorata and P. indica are found in this area 
along with the sterile but aggressive hybrid between these two species. 
The hybrid has become a common weed in the Hawaiian Islands and is also 
found on Palmyra Island also in the Line Group. This hybrid and one 
parent, P. odorate are found along the roads and old barracks. P. ordorat a 
is common at the open edges of the Cocos groves adjacent to the heavily 
used areas. On the SW side at Paris Pluchea odorata is forming thickets 
along the edges of the groves and appears to be spreading into open areas 
of Lepturus and Boerhavia . There is the distinct possibility that this 
species could compete in some areas with the native vegetation particularly 
the Scaevola - Tournefortia scrub. It is also found on Motu Upua on the 
interior of the island but does not appear to be spreading in this location. 
The plant association found at the edge of the numerous lagoons and 
isolated islets in the lagoon at Christmas are fascinating areas for the 
study of succession and zonation. Of particular interest are former 
reef mud flats and hardpans upon which one finds a mixed association of 
Scaevola, Hedyotis and Suriana with Portulaca lutea and Lepturus forming 
a ground cover. Scattered mats or individual plants of Sesuvium are found 
on the isolated islets or on the edges of tidal runs along with Eragrostis 
whitneyi . In such areas the roots are well watered with saline water. The 
substrate of such areas vary from coral gravel and sand deposited by the 
flow of water across the lagoon to reef mud which upon drying quickly forms 
a hardpan layer. 
