The coconut pearl is alleged to be a coconut-produced gemstone. Claimed to be the rarest botanical gem in the world,[1] the coconut pearl supposedly grows inside the coconut[2]. However, the existence of these pearls is in dispute, and some claim that published photos are hoaxes.[3] Wayne's Word, the source of much of the descriptive text and photographs used to illustrate coconut pearls on the Internet, writes that "several botany textbooks flatly state that coconut pearls are a hoax because proof of their existence is totally unfounded" and "I prematurely published an on-line note about this "pearl" [The Maharaja coconut pearl, on display at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida] in 1996 before I discovered that it did not come from a coconut."[4]