Nikau are very slow growers. They have long been isolated from the mainland, and many botanists believe they should be recognised as a distinct species, like the nikau of some even more remote rocky outposts. Nearly a century later, Lowe does admit to having to lose one or two during the period of his stewardship. The nikau palm is a very slow-growing plant. A must have for all palm enthusiasts. Nothing. They are so closely packed that there is little room for anything else—just the odd rimu old and ugly enough to put up with the shoving from a lot of boisterous young palm trees. • NZ Nikau Palm ( Rhopalostylis sapida): This is New Zealand’s native palm. Passage through the alimentary canal of a New Zealand pigeon, or kereru, would have the same effect. There were coconuts here then, and probably crocodiles, but that was before the Big Chill. The plants we grow and sell include: Agaves. This was the “palm cabbage” that was served up to the crew of Endeavour. They’re on George Harris’s old section. Best planted in free draining, moist soil. “The old horse got in the habit of passing a bit close to one of ’em. It is rare to find northern nikau growing out in the open, but, wind-lashed and sun-scorched, the cousins from down south will hang on for generations in farm paddocks long after any sheltering forest canopy has faded from living memory. Nikau Palm Reserve is right in Paraparaumu. Between one and five leaves may be shed in a single season, and then you have to remember to add up to 20 years for the time it takes the average nikau to form a trunk. Some are still covered in a thin coat of wrinkled red flesh, but foot traffic has skinned most of them, leaving just the bullet-hard kernel. The outermost leaf, being the oldest, is the first to go. But dropping down over Razorback Point onto the Barrytown flats, I draw comfort from the fact that the march of progress seems to have been halted in its tracks. On my way back to Karamea I stop off for a closer look at Lowe’s section. A small group of biologists and conservationists took their objections to this cosy little arrangement to Wellington, the upshot being that a new Labour government, keen to demonstrate its environmental credentials, quashed the deal and protected the forest remnant. More research is needed into its precise relationship with the mainland form. A glance at the surfers in their 10 mm rubber suits will tell you how far from the equator you really are. I wonder how much longer they can withstand the powerful forces ranged against them. Photographed by Roy Hunt. Nīkau palms also grow on the Chatham Islands, and some botanists believe the plants there belong to a separate species. The fronds are up to 3m long, and the closely-set, sometimes overlapping leaflets are up to 1 m long. Astonishingly, the winter bird counts in this tiny reserve are higher than those in any other bit of lowland forest in the Paparoa region. After attempting to capture something of the rather haunted atmosphere of the place on film, I fold away the tripod and start making my way back to the road. If only they could get away to a less crowded nursery, their chances of survival would be much improved—which, of course, is the service the pigeons provide: a food-fordispersal arrangement. But he acknowledged that nikau growing on Banks Peninsula or at Hokitika, on the West Coast, are likely to be more frost-tolerant than those found further north. It will be dark soon, and it occurs to me that no one knows I’m here. The bases fit snugly one inside the next like the leaves of a leek. The bright green trunks of the nikau are almost luminous in the subterranean shade of this crazy log-jam of a forest. It’s not that they’re in any danger of extinction—there are plenty of them in the protected forests—but it seems to me that it’s paddock nikau, flashing past at 100 km/h, that contribute most to our image of the Coast. But don’t be fooled. [2], Nikau images and artworks, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rhopalostylis_sapida&oldid=994093337, IUCN Red List conservation dependent species, Use New Zealand English from February 2020, All Wikipedia articles written in New Zealand English, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 14 December 2020, at 02:10. It can take them the best part of a century to reach 10 m. Ian Athfield, architect of Wellington’s Civic Square, couldn’t wait that long, so he had nikau handcrafted out of nickel and steel. Anyone who has walked the Heaphy Track will have memories of nikau, although they don’t really come into the picture until you’re on the last leg—at about the same time as sandflies start to make their presence felt. On average two fronds are shed per year leaving behind a leaf scar on the trunk which can be used to give a rough indication of age since the trunk began forming. At the end of the trail is the largest grove of nikau in the South Island. Mature leaves are shed between October and May. The Mainland Nikau is a must for any garden design with its lush … I realise that it was, for a time (and possibly still today), politically correct to plant native plants in every commercial planting. Some seem to go rotten where cattle rub up against them, and every year a storm takes one or two. But the roots of the Palm trees do not cause any … It’s a big thing over there now—tropical-looking plants which can survive Britain’s cold, wet, dark winters. AKA Rhopalostylis sapida . The most southerly and probably hardiest of all nikau are those found growing on the Chatham Islands. On special occasions, or in extremis, Maori would prepare a meal from the central leaf bud—the succulent heart of the nikau. The point here is that, as a species, the Nikau Palm is slow growing in its natural habitat. Ground watering is recommended because crown watering can induce terminal rot at the very slow-growing new spike. Then it runs out completely, the last bit of ribbon looped through the eye socket of a possum skull. No one seems to know how long nikau live, but the old ones can’t be expected to carry the torch forever. It’s tempting to imagine that counting these rings provides a measure of the age of a palm, but it’s not that simple. “They’re shade for the cattle. Specifications: … Standing firm, they watch over a timeless landscape, the idealised version of the West Coast that has embedded itself in our collective unconscious. The trunk is topped by a smooth bulging crown shaft up to 1m long. The nīkau palm is unique to New Zealand and it primarily occurs in coastal to lowland forest in warmer regions. A bird is said to have laid an egg in the saint’s outstretched hands as he extended them in prayer, and he held the pose until the chick was safely fledged. The tropical connection isn’t altogether illusory. I was standing beneath the same trees myself less than an hour ago. Two of the ea… Westland Illmenite still has a site office almost opposite the reserve and has bought up the dairy farms on either side, including the paddock with the Stanley Palmer nikau. These roots remain thin as they increase in length. At Scotts Beach, a scatter of driftwood shelters artfully thatched with nikau fronds testify to the many travellers who have lingered here. When grown in full sun the leaves will tend to be more upright and dry on the tips. In his book Nga Uruora: The Groves of Life, Geoff Park says that there are really only two places left on the West Coast where you can walk out of protected sand-plain forest onto a wild beach. Nevertheless, I decide to push my way in 50 m or so just for a look-see. New Zealand's only native palm. Cacti. Natives. $1 trial for two weeks, thereafter $8.50 every two months, cancel any time. Nikau Palm is a photoautotroph. In fact, the silt dumped around their roots by the floodwaters appears to give them an energy boost. A slow growing palm up to 15 meters in height with dark green upright foliage that gives the palm a shuttlecock shape on top of a trunk that shows off the marks of where the fronds were . Land conversion and human development of the lowland and coastal areas have … For the first 30 or 40 km south of Westport, on State Highway 6, the inland forest has a rather ravaged look. All I hear is the sound of my own heavy breathing. Strangely, there hasn’t always been the same enthusiasm for New Zealand natives at home in Aotearoa as overseas. Compare that with the 150 people a year said to be killed by falling coconuts and you may be glad that nikau only produce a lot of indigestible berries. There they grow in the sort of setting and at the level of abundance that would have been common in pre-land-clearance days. Please create one below, or sign in if you already have one. Nikau seeds lie scattered over the sundeck of the café next door. Bomeliads. It would be hard to imagine the Coast without nikau, and yet you can drive for miles without seeing any. These are a preferred food of the kererū (native pigeon). Nīkau is a Māori word; in the closely related Eastern Polynesian languages of the tropical Pacific, it refers to the fronds or the midrib of the coconut palm. Bangalow Queen King Kentia Palms are extremely popular. Best grown in part shade, though they will tolerate full sun. I know they grow well on the island of Tresco, which basks in the Gulf Stream just off Cornwall. Wading across, I pick up what I suppose to be an old possum hunter’s trail. It’s good to see nikau appearing along Queen Street and around Civic Square, even if some of them are made of nickel and steel, but it would be even better if a few more live ones were going into the ground out in the sticks. Luxuriant forest smudged with crimson rata blossom rolls down from blunt-nosed peaks. Nikau have been called the shaving-brush palm or feather-duster palm because of the way the leaves are held so erect. With their more robust configuration, nikau of the south look a lot tougher than the effete northerners, and they are capable of withstanding far harsher conditions. I imagine the embarrassment of starving to death in one of the world’s smallest wilderness areas. It can survive a few degrees of frost, but it is damaged even more severely by sudden large drops in temperature even above freezing. The Nikaus and trees are beautiful. Nikau Grove is a privately owned plant and tree nursery located in Kumeu, just 20 minutes from central Auckland. “They’re elegant, strong and representative of the Wellington region. Nikau fringe a golden beach where surfers ride the nor’west swells that sweep in from the Tasman Sea. Many smaller species originate from forests where they grow beneath the canopy of evergreen trees. They have adapted naturally to low light which enables them to grow in similar conditions indoors. The nïkau is very slow-growing. Its ivory spadix, or flower stalk, really does resemble a bony hand and conjures a ghostly resonance with St Kevin himself. Again, something about the image induces a feeling of déjà vu. The fruit produced takes almost an entire year to ripen but is a favourite of the Kereru (native wood pigeon). It has a self-supporting growth form. Yuccas. Nikau palm trees can be found throughout coastal, lowland and hilly forests of the North Island and the top of the South Island. 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