Rhopalostylis Sapida

Rhopalostylis sapida.
Left - this photo shows the 'Nikau Palm' as it is called in New Zealand growing in its favoured habitat, alongside tree ferns and temperate rainforest plants. It grows to about 8m tall on a slender trunk which is frequntly covered in mosses and lichens which in turn give ferns and epiphytes a foothold to make a vertical garden, sometimes all the way up the trunk.
Photo courtesy of Shaun Cronin
Right -  This photo shows clearly the smooth green crown shaft below the leaves where the base of the oldest leaf on the palm wraps around the trunk. The infructesences (branches bearing seeds) in the foreground of this photo start life as flowers and grow inbetween the layers of the leaf bases, you can clearly see here a maturing flower under the leaf base causing it to bulge, a bit like a pregnancy! 

Left - after the oldest leaf has dropped the infloresence emerges. This is a branching structure that bears hundreds of individual flowers. This infloresence is newly emeged and most of the flowers have not yet opened, the pink colour will fade to cream as the flower matures.
Photo courtesy of peregrin on flickr.com. See their link on our resources page.
Right - the leaves are held stiffly upright on a straight un arching rachis (leaf stem) as are the individual leaflets arranged in opposite ranks. The leaves are cowded densley in the crown of the palm and when they begin to discolour and die they soon fall from the tree leaving a clean trunk with a crown of only upright leaves. This stiff and dense crown gives rise to another of its common names - 'Shaving Brush Palm'. It was grown in Tresco Abbey Gardens in the Scilly Isles for many years until freak weather conditions in 1987 bought not previously seen freezing conditions to decimate the gardens and the Rhopalostylis also, which had grown substantial trunks there. This palm is reasonably tolerant of light frosts and is worth growing in coastal locations in the south of England or in locations the west coast who enjoy the Gulf stream, and in city microclimates. It should always be given the shelter of other plants or buildings and idealy a little shade from the sun in the hottest part of the day.