Century old palm trees and the French connection

During the Moorea conference in March 2009 attended by members of the Koutu Nui, the participants met Roland Bourdeix, a French researcher and scientific expert on the coconut palms which he calls the ‘tree of life.’ He has co-authored a book on the subject.
While compiling the book, Bordieux visited the Cook Islands in 2002 and checked out the seven old coconut trees growing in front of the Court House. By means of morphology, he discovered that the trees were 102 years old (in 2002) and the seven trees really did stem from the same original palm tree and it was not just a myth after all.
After meeting Apai Mataiapo at the conference, they became good friends and he presented a personally signed copy of his book to the Mataiapo after they discovered their Rarotonga and French connection, of sorts. Incidentally, the palm trees were included in the book which he presented to Apai Mataiapo as a memento.

Headlines : Times 290 02 March 2009
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- Century old palm trees and the French connection
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- WOM Award Dinner for Ake Hosea-Winterflood
- Island of Atiu to host Koutu Nui AGM in June 2009