Nikau Palm trees, Porirua, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand

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Nikau Palm trees, Porirua, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand The nīkau palm is the only palm species endemic to mainland New Zealand. Its natural range is coastal and lowland forest on the North Island, and on the South Island as far south as Okarito mostly in humidity (43°20′S) in the west and Banks Peninsula (43°5′S) in the east. It also occurs on Chatham Island and Pitt Island/Rangiauria to the south-east of New Zealand, where it is the world's southernmost palm at 44° 18'S latitude. The nīkau grows up to 15 m tall, with a stout, green trunk which bears grey-green leaf scars. The trunk is topped by a smooth, bulging crownshaft up to 1m long. The fronds are up to 3 m long, and the closely set, sometimes overlapping leaflets are up to 1 m long. The inflorescence is multibranched and from 200 to 400 mm long. The tightly packed flowers are unisexual and coloured lilac to pink. Male flowers are borne in pairs, and have six stamens. The female flowers are solitary. The fruit is elliptic or oblong, and generally measures about 10 by 7 mm, and is red when ripe. The nīkau produces flowers between November and April, and fruits ripen from February to November, taking almost a year to fully ripen. These are a preferred food of the kererū, the native wood pigeon.

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Size: 4928px × 3264px
Location: Porirua, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand
Photo credit: © Geoff Marshall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: botanical, botany, bush, coastal, colonial, fern, foliage, forest, fronds, green, grove, island, knob, leaf, native, nikau, north, nz, palm, pattern, plant, porirua, rain-forest, rhopalostylis, stream, track, tree, trees, trunks, vegetation, wellington, zealand