Solved Have I just gone silly or is this a coconut?

We found three of these by the local pond, the size is about a small fist.

Google suggests they are coconuts but I honestly can't figure out where they could have come from. Unripe ones are not sold in shops, and somehow I think we would have noticed a fruiting Coconut palm if any were growing around here.

Monty Python comes to mind but the Swallows denied everything.

Any suggestions?

 

could it be an old water lily flower - just the seed pod remaining?

 

That's it! There are Yellow waterlilies in the pond, and Wiki had a good photo of the seed pod:



Thanks so much @Pete8

 

I never get anything like that on my waterlilies.

 

Could it be this instead.
https://www.aquaticplants.org/p/nuphar-lutea-yellow-pond-lily/

 

Yes that's what I meant, not a waterlily.

Strange that I spent my childhood pulling them when in a rowing boat, they are very common in Finland. But the seedpod just didn't click in my brain. Coconut... my bum...

 

This thread has got a tiny bit odd.
Just to clarify Nuphar lutea IS a waterlily with yellow flowers.
Your pics show the developing seed pod.

Pics below show it growing wild in a Loch in Perthshire. Scotland.

 

I suppose the term water lilly is a bit vague, like most common names for plants.
I mean let's face it, none of them are lillys it's a name that about a dozen plants are given as a common name.

 

I knew I'd heard of this before, it was in a pond plant book I had years ago and the common name then was brandy bottle, not sure why.

 

The shape of the seed pod is similar to the old fashioned cognac bottles

 

OK,yes sounds about right.

 

Interesting..New one to me..but it gets a mention on wiki...
Quote
"Nuphar lutea, the yellow water-lily, brandy-bottle, or spadderdock, is an aquatic plant of the family Nymphaeaceae, native to northern temperate and some subtropical regions of Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia."

 

Happens with this lot

Ulpukka Ulpukka – Wikipedia is widespread, and I'm surprised to learn, up to arctic circle.

Google tells me this about the brandy bottle reference:
From June to August, bright yellow, buttercup-like flowers on stiff stems above leathery, deep green, floating or submerged leaves similar to those of a water lily. The flowers of this vigorous, deep water aquatic plant smell strongly of alcohol - hence its intriguing common name.