Jonna, they get up to 5 metres tall. I will be impressed with that, fingers crossed.
Evan, it's not native here. I think New Guinea and Micronesia. It was commonly grown on coral atolls in the freshwater lens. Because freshwater and saltwater tend to form layers, rainwater on coral atolls sinks through the sand and forms a freshwater layer on the saltwater. The small tides push the layers up and down but there's very little mixing. This has allowed survival of people on these islands that are relatively barren food and water wise. The islanders would dig down into the sand to the water layer and plant their C. merkusii. These wells also provided drinking water. Diets were limited to virtually only these plants, coconuts and fish. And growing of these plants became steeped in mysticism and ritual. The practice died away a lot with the coming of foreign influences and food.
