Monday 22 October 2018
Rhopalostylis sapida or Nikau palm is endemic to the North Island, South Island, Chatham Islands, and Pitt Island. It is found throughout the North Island, and from Marlborough Sounds and Nelson south to Okarito in the west and Banks Peninsula in the east in the South Island. This very distinctive plant is primarily a species of coastal to lowland forest in the warmer parts of New Zealand, growing from sea-level to 230m asl. It is a palm reaching 10m or more high with a light grey, closely ringed trunk (smooth and green between leaf scars on younger plants) with huge feather-shaped leaves (fronds) up to 3m long arising from a bulbous base of overlapping sheaths. This forms a crown shaped like a giant shuttlecock. Mature trees can produce flowers at anytime of the year that is followed by hard berries that can take a year to ripen to a bright red colour. In Christchurch you could grow it indoors, or if you were in a more coastal area, or on the hills on a frost free site.
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I gave been growing a small one of these next to Travis Wetland and found the frost knocks it right back but it comes away again. Just under the soffet of the house has since protected it. I belive if sourced from that Grove on Banks Peninsula and if planted under a
ReplyDeletebush canopy there would be success at reentriducing them to Travis.