I've honestly never seen that before . . . it would be mighty hard to get the necessary research to survive without the tree, but I think that if you use your chief every 24 hours on the DOT, and research hard with a very limited population, and mushroom/collectible hunt like mad, you should pull through.

Are you sure it isn't just a different fruit that's hard to see? There's bananna, papaya, and mango, and I haven't seen all three, myself. (Through three games!) And yes, one looks like a coconut.