Manual of the New Zealand Flora/Palmæ
Order LXXXIV. PALMÆ.
Woody plants, usually with an erect stem bearing a terminal crown of large pinnate or fan-shaped leaves, rarely climbing or decumbent. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, small, numerous, arranged in spikes or panicles called spadices, which are enclosed when young within a large and broad deciduous bract called a spathe. Perianth inferior, coriaceous, persistent, of 6 segments in 2 series; the outer imbricate, often united into a 3-toothed or -lobed cup; the inner usually valvate. Stamens generally 6 or 3, rarely more, inserted at the base of che perianth; filaments free or connate, subulate or filiform; anthers versatile. Ovary superior, 1- or 3-celled, or of 3 distinct carpels; style very short or wanting; stigmas 3, sessile; ovules solitary (rarely 2) in each cell. Fruit a drupe or berry; exocarp thick, spongy, fleshy, or fibrous; endocarp membranous or crustaceous or bony. Seed with copious horny cartilaginous or oily albumen; embryo small, in a cavity near the surface of the albumen.
A majestic order, comprising nearly 130 genera and about 1100 species, almost wholly confined to tropical or warm extratropical regions, a few only found in northern or southern temperate latitudes. Pew families are more generally useful, or applied to a greater variety of purposes. The timber, the foliage, the fruit, the starchy pith, and the fermentable sap are all employed. The cocoanut, date, sago-palm, cabbage-palm, betel-palm, African oil-palm, &c., are some of the best known species. The single genus found in New Zealand also occurs in Norfolk Island.
Stem tall, erect, marked with annulate scars. Leaves in a terminal crown, pinnately divided; segments numerous, equidistant, narrow-ensiform, acuminate, midrib stout, margins recurved towards the base. Inflorescence at the base of the leaves, of a much and densely branched spadix enclosed within two boat-shaped spathes. Flowers monœcious, the males and females on the same spadix, densely crowded, sessile, usually in threes, a female in the centre with a male on each side of it. Male flowers: Sepals subulate-lanceolate. Petals rather larger, obliquely ovate, acuminate, valvate. Stamens 6; filaments subulate, inflexed at the tips; anthers linear-oblong, dorsifixed, versatile. Rudimentary ovary columnar. Female flowers: Smaller and broader than the males, almost globose. Sepals rounded, concave, imbricating. Petals smaller. Ovary ovoid, 1-celled; stigma sessile, 3-fid; ovule parietal. Drupe ellipsoid or nearly globose; exocarp fleshy and succulent; endocarp fibrous within. Seed erect; albumen smooth, not ruminated; embryo basilar.
A genus consisting of the two following species, confined to New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and the Kermadec Islands.
| Trunk rather slender, 10–30 ft. Drupe oblong | 1. R. sapida. |
| Trunk stout, 20–50 ft. Drupe globose | 2. R. Baueri. |
1. R. sapida, Wendl. and Drude in Kerch. Palm. 255.—Stem rather slender, smooth, 10–25 ft. high, 6–9 in. diam., rarely more. Leaves 4–8 ft. long; rhachis clothed with copious lepidote scales; leaflets very numerous, 2–3 ft. long or more, 1–2 in. broad, linear-ensiform, midrib and main veins covered with lepidote scales; margins replicate at the base. Spadix 1–2 ft. long, much and closely branched, glabrous; spathes 2 or 3. Flowers very densely crowded, purplish-lilac. Drupe ½ in. long, elliptic-oblong, bright-red.—Areca sapida, Soland. ex Forst. f. Pl. Escul. 66; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 157; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 298; Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 262, t. 59, 60; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 288; Bot. Mag. t. 5139. Kentia sapida, Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. iii. 312.
North Island: Abundant in forests throughout. South Island: In lowland districts not far from the coast as far south as Banks Peninsula and Hokitika, rare and local. Chatham Islands: F. A. D. Cox! Sea-level to 2000 ft. Nikau. January–April.
The nikau-palm, so well known to all residents in the northern half of the colony, is of special interest as being the most southern member of its order. The unexpanded central bud and the very young spadix are both edible, and were formerly eaten by the Maoris, and even by European settlers. Branched specimens are occasionally seen; a very remarkable one with no less than 11 branches has been described and figured by Mr. Percy Smith (Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. 357, t. 15). Mr. Cockayne refers the Chatham Islands plant to the following species, but fruiting specimens sent to me by Mr. F. A. D. Cox have the elliptic-oblong drupe of R. sapida, and not the globose one of R. Baueri.
2. R. Baueri, Wendl. and Drude in Bot. Zeit. xxxv. (1877) 638.—Very closely allied to the preceding species, but larger and stouter, sometimes attaining a height of 50 ft. with a trunk over 12 in. diam. Leaves larger and more numerous; segments usually longer and broader, inflorescence larger, the spadices said to be sometimes 3 ft. in length. Drupe altogether different in shape, globose or nearly so, ½–⅔ in. diam.—Kentia Baueri, Seem. Fl. Vit. 269; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 174. Areca Baueri, Hook. f. in Illustr. Hortic. xv. (1868) 575; Bot. Mag. t. 5735. A. sapida, Endl. Prodr. Fl. Norfolc. 26 (not of Soland.).
Kermadec Islands: Sunday Island, abundant from sea-level to the tops of the hills, alt. 1500 ft., T.F.C. Chatham Islands (?): Index Kewensis, iv. 713.
Originally discovered in Norfolk Island, and supposed by Endlicher to be the same as the New Zealand species, from which it is easily distinguished by the larger size and globose fruit. It is stated to be found in the Chatham Islands in the "Index Kewensis," but I have seen no specimens from thence.