Elegant Palm Is Found At Akaroa.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 46, 24 February 1931, Page 6

Elegant Palm Is Found At Akaroa.

Nature Notes

By

James Drummond,

F.L.S., F.Z.S.

NORTH ISLAND RESIDENT, If asked as to the most elegant, stately, and graceful native plant in New Zealand, probably would name the nikau palm, which is plentiful in almost all the North Island forests except in the central mountainous districts. Some South Island residents might think of it, but not very many, as the nikau, in the South Island, grows in only lowland districts ' not far from the coast, and is rare and local. Akaroa is the southern boundary of its range on the East Coast. Particulars obtained from some of the earliest settlers in Westland show that the nikau’s most southerly station on the West Coast is near the New River, about eight miles south of Greymouth. It has been destroyed there by the spread of settlement, but is still present, in small numbers, at Nelson Creek, about four miles south of Greymouth. North of the Grey River, it is fairly plentiful on the eastern and western slopes of the Rapahoe or Twelve Apostles Range, which runs north from Greymouth to Point Elizabeth. There it ascends to an altitude of 700 or 800 feet. North of Point Elizabeth, it is comparatively abundant along and near the coast, and is in no immediate danger of disappearance through the spread of settlement and cultivation. Palms favour tropical countries mainly. The nikau is distinguished as the only palm in New Zealand’s flora, and as the most southern member of its wonderfully useful and majestic family.