Kermadec nikau (Rhopalostylis sapida)
Description
Palm to 15 m tall with a ringed trunk and 3 m long erect leaves inhabiting lowland forest south to Okarito and Banks Peninsula and the Chatham Islands. Leaves with multiple narrow leaflets to 1 m long closely-spaced along central stem. Flowers pinkish, in multiple spikes at the top of trunk. Fruit red. Trunk up to 15 m, stout, covered in grey-green leaf scars, otherwise green. Crownshaft 0.6 (-1) m long, dark green, smooth, bulging. Fronds up to 3 m long; leaflets to 1 m, closely set (sometimes over lapping), ascending. Spathes about 300 x 150 mm., between pink and yellow, caducous. Inflorescence shortly stalked, with many branches, 200-400 mm long. Flowers sessile, unisexual, tightly packed, lilac to pink. Males in pairs, caducous, stamens 6. Females solitary, with minute staminodes, ovary 1-locular, stigmas terminal, recurved, persistent. Fruit about 10 x 7 mm, elliptic-oblong, flesh red. Trunk to about 12 m. × 25 cm., green between rather closely spaced leaf-scars; crownshaft to 60 cm. long, smooth and green, slightly bulging. Leaf to 3 m. long; leaflets to 1 m. long, closely set and ascending sharply. Spathes about 30 × 15 cm., between pink and yellow, smooth, falling as first flowers open. Ultimate branches of inflorescence. to about 20–(30) cm. long, about 1.5 cm. in diam. with buds on, at first pale cream-coloured; flower-buds tightly packed, lilac Fragrance, about 10 × 7 mm., elliptic-oblong, brick-red. Seed long-oval, tightly invested in smooth, whitish endocarp which is marked by mainly longitudinal vascular strands; hilum broad at chalazal end, tapering to a narrow groove beside the micropyle.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Liliopsida
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Order: Arecales
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Family: Arecaceae
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Genus: Rhopalostylis
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