Nikau palms, though beautiful and beneficial to native forests, can be frustrating for gardeners when their hardy fronds fall into backyards. These fronds, similar to flax, are difficult to compost and often rejected by green waste operators.
The palms, reaching 10-15 meters, have smooth, green, bulbous fronds that overlap like cabbage leaves. As fronds mature and fall, they leave circular scars on the trunk. The stunning seed pods, which bloom into bright red berries attracting Tui and Kereru, eventually dry and drop to the ground. These are not difficult to propagate from seed but need time and some bottom heat definitely speeds up the process. They also like to be kept quite damp.
Nikau palms have long been important to the Maori, who used the leaves for thatching, wrapping food, and weaving mats and baskets. The woody base served as storage containers and pots, and the berries were eaten or used as necklaces and sometimes bullets. Even the immature flowers were cooked and eaten like cauliflower.
