Rhopalostylis Sapida (Oceana) Chatham Island Nikau Palm

[pogobob]

Oh by the way where is Clark these days - maybe he is sheep farming in the Chatham islands

Those were the good old bad days, Clark is hawking Tahitian pearls in Libiya and Somalia last I heard! By the way the Bohemian Chatham has added about 2 ft of trunk and the crownshaft has bulged more,as has my belly in the last 2 years!

[BS Man about Palms]

[Tassie_Troy1971]

I have a gut feeling that Ken was a tribal warrior from the chatham Islands ! We miss you Ken ! you had a huge presence on the forum !

[Got Palms]

2 years old from a five gallon doing very well!

[DoomsDave]

2 years old from a five gallon doing very well!

Hola, vecino . . . .

Come and visit. I'll show you my Rhopies . . . .

[Palmzilla]

Mmmmmm palm hearts....

[dalmatiansoap]

Any ideas where to buy Chatham Rophies seeds?

[Josh-O]

Not sure but I have lots of fresh rhopalostylis cheesemanii seeds for sale

check out the for sale forum

[Tassie_Troy1971]

I have grown and Sold hundreds of these over the last few yrs !
I will have to Rattle my seed Monkeys Pogobob and Darold Petty !

[Matt in OC]

Any Oceana picture updates?

[Darold Petty]

Here is mine, an old photo from 2013.  This palm has about 80 cm more trunk now.  The crownshaft diameter, or 'bulge', is variable, depending on the number and vigor of the immature spadices within the leafbases.

 

[Matt in OC]

Wow!

[sipalms]

I would say that the link posted above (the DOC Summary painting a dire picture of Chatham/Pitt Island Nikau) is possibly exaggerated slightly. 

I stumbled across this thread this morning, and decided to call an old family friend who lives on Pitt Island, which is where the pure original Chatham variety is from. They said that they have a lot of young and old Nikau in the Native bush on their property, it would seem in abundance and they very kindly offered to post some young plants across to me. 

Will be awesome to see how these look and grow.  Especially given that nurseries here seem to charge like a wounded bull for Pitt Island Nikau and half the time the purity of the variety could be questioned given the cross pollination that could occur on the mainland.

[sipalms]

Well, a nice surprise arrived on the courier yesterday!

I received a beautiful bunch of Pitt Island Nikau seedlings and small palms directly from a friend who dug them up off their property on Pitt Island.

I counted 13 in total of various sizes. And yes, they already look distinctly different from their mainland cousins. Hard to describe but an amateur could easily identify the difference - Much thicker leaflets, a different shade of green, longer petioles.

Some even had their as seeds still attached and the seeds were noticeably larger than mainland ones. They were a bit squished and thirsty for a drink so I quickly potted them up and sat them under a nice shady canopy. It'll be great to watch these grow and especially satisfying to know that these are the real, pure deal, straight from the source!

I gave them a rich compost mixture, mixed in with some sheep pellets, a bit of nitrophoska and pumice. Probably over the top in terms of nutrients but I'm sure they'll appreciate it if I give them plenty of water.

[Tyrone]

Very nice acquisition there. Yes Chathams look so much different to normal mainland sapida right from the start. The Chathams Ive grown have come up exactly like those shown. But, dont you reckon at that stage they look just the same as bauerii? What's the bet that the Chatham Island Nikau is more closely related to bauerii than sapida???????? The growth rate is similar too.

[sipalms]

33 minutes ago, Tyrone said:

Very nice acquisition there. Yes Chathams look so much different to normal mainland sapida right from the start. The Chathams Ive grown have come up exactly like those shown. But, dont you reckon at that stage they look just the same as bauerii? What's the bet that the Chatham Island Nikau is more closely related to bauerii than sapida???????? The growth rate is similar too.

I'm not that familiar with Bauerii as they definitely aren't suited to my climate in terms of cold hardiness. But you could well be right. These have a more tropical appearance for sure, they have a softer look and a deeper green and wider leaflets...

Do you have any photos of your chatham seeds, compared to others?

Also on that note, what is your recommendation for germinating fresh Nikau seeds? I know you have plenty of experience! My Pitt Is. friend is going to send me some fresh seeds once they have ripened as well. I don't have any experience with germinating Nikau (part of the problem is my lack of patience)...

[Tyrone]

I will see if I can get some pictures but my Chathams have kind of gone past that stage and I need to plant them. 

Germinating nikaus is dead easy. I use large plastic tubs that I drill holes in the bottom for drainage. I then place 12-15cms of germination mix (perlite coir sand) sprinkle the seeds on top, cover with spaghnum moss, water in then put in a shady place where they can get all the winter rain and make sure they stay moist. In 6 months they’ll be pushing up spears everywhere. After about another year I separate them into individual pots. They will germinate when outside temps during the day are just 15C. They don’t care about cool temps. Definitely keep them out of frost though. Under canopy even in deep shade is really good I find. 

Yes mainland sapida have a fine leaf from the beginning. Baueri and the Chatham sapida have a much wider chunkier leaf than sapida. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chathams are a form of baueri. At the end of the day that’s just academic. I love the whole genus. I still need to find some South Island sapida. All mine are north island. 

[sipalms]

Thanks @Tyrone. Very helpful. How do you go about cleaning the fresh seeds?

[Tyrone]

I think I soaked them for a couple of days then removed what I could by hand. It may not be necessary though.

[cbmnz]

I've found Baueri to be relative rockets.

[cbmnz]

Same palms Oct and November 2019

[PalmCode]

It's bloody awesome to watch the Chatham islands Rhopalistylis grow compared to the Auckland mainland Sapida. They adapt very well and are vigorous growers, just keep them well watered.

Love those chunky dark green leaves with that white petiole.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

On 4/9/2021 at 7:11 AM, sipalms said:

Well, a nice surprise arrived on the courier yesterday!

I received a beautiful bunch of Pitt Island Nikau seedlings and small palms directly from a friend who dug them up off their property on Pitt Island.

I counted 13 in total of various sizes. And yes, they already look distinctly different from their mainland cousins. Hard to describe but an amateur could easily identify the difference - Much thicker leaflets, a different shade of green, longer petioles.

Some even had their as seeds still attached and the seeds were noticeably larger than mainland ones. They were a bit squished and thirsty for a drink so I quickly potted them up and sat them under a nice shady canopy. It'll be great to watch these grow and especially satisfying to know that these are the real, pure deal, straight from the source!

I gave them a rich compost mixture, mixed in with some sheep pellets, a bit of nitrophoska and pumice. Probably over the top in terms of nutrients but I'm sure they'll appreciate it if I give them plenty of water.

I got the Chatham Island seeds  Pogobob at the start of the thread  (Robert De jong ) was kind enough to send me some in 2009. Also have seen the Mother tree 2 x on visits to California.

Here are my two grown from seed in 2009. They are faster growing than my other Nikau and have beautiful silver petioles.

[tim_brissy_13]

Here’s mine. Got it as a seedling around 2017, then transplanted from my old place in 2019 which probably set it back slightly. In the last 12 months it has fully established and is now rocketing along. 

[richnorm]

I agree, they better match baueri.  Surprisingly they don't like my Auckland climate and often spear pull.  I gave up growing them but do have Chatham x Hedyscepe which sure look like nikau but have been exceptionally slow.

[PalmCode]

3 hours ago, richnorm said:

I agree, they better match baueri.  Surprisingly they don't like my Auckland climate and often spear pull.  I gave up growing them but do have Chatham x Hedyscepe which sure look like nikau but have been exceptionally slow.

Dang. That is a pity you've had trouble with growing Chatham islands Nikau in Auckland. They go nuts where I live. After growing the typical Auckland Sapida for so long it's like a frigging miracle the Chatham island ones exist.

But it sounds like they don't do as well for everyone.

[gerald6006]

On 31/10/2008 at 09:07, Tyrone said:

Je me souviens d'une émission de jardinage sur Oz TV qui avait une émission spéciale NZ, et ils ont montré un jardin de l'île du sud avec Chatham Ilsnad Nikaus qui aurait peut-être 1 m de haut couvert de neige. On a dit qu'ils ne marquaient même pas du tout et qu'ils continuaient à grandir. De toute évidence, la neige est un peu une isolation contre les effets de refroidissement supplémentaires, mais le tissu aurait été en dessous de zéro. C'est une espèce incroyable.

 

Tyrone

Hello Tyrone,

I would have loved to see this show. Nikau are incredible and incredibly beautiful species

[PalmCode]

Spotted this awesome group next to a car park. Went over and grabbed a few seeds. There were heaps rotting on the ground.  The recent dry summers have burned the palms a little.

[PalmCode]

Guess I'll mention the seeds from palm on the right were all notibly larger than all the seeds on the other 3, almost Baueri size. Is this just an age thing or just random?
 I'm interested to see if there will be any notible growth between the seedlings in the future or if it makes no difference what the seed size is.

 

[PalmCode]

Happy to say seeds have come up. Two of them came up about a month quicker than the rest... I'm guessing these would not have hybridised with anything...Parent palm/s look awesome .

[Tyrone]

12 hours ago, PalmCode said:

Happy to say seeds have come up. Two of them came up about a month quicker than the rest... I'm guessing these would not have hybridised with anything...Parent palm/s look awesome .

I bet they’ll all come up too. It’s very satisfying growing these from seed.

[PalmCode]

2 hours ago, Alexstudent said:

I wonder if you have some seeds for sale ?I am student , and we doing a project on arecae flora ( subtropical and temperate palms ).We need some seeds of nikau palm Pitt island or Chatham island varieties  , it is very difficult to find them . I know that these varieties is often planted in city plantings in Auckland , Northland and Auckland botanical gardens , I can also find tree locations of these ones in Auckland for you , so it will be easier to know exact place where they grow and you can collect seeds of them. I think they will be ripped    after Christmas ?You are my last hope , i hope you will be able to help me ,  we are also in big need for Rhopalostylis baueri seeds.. norfolk nikau , this one is also very common in City plantings or in botanical garden in Auckland . Both Pitt and Chatham Nikau , and Norfolk Nikau is fast growers , compared to Auckland variety of Nikau or mainland variety of Nikau .
Norfolk and Kermadec Nikau called for rhopalostylis baueri var. cheesemanii, and Rhopalostylis Baueri, Rhopalostylis sapida sp. Oceanica.( Chatham island variety ) I will ofcourse pay you extra for collecting them for me. You are my last hope , since I don’t know anybody Else from NZ who sale seeds, and it feels like I will never finish this project  .

I have not been back this this source in couple months and the were no ripe  seeds that hadn't been eaten by bugs or rotted. Same goes for the Bueri i know of. It's a shame i cannot send you some seedlings i have more than enough of both types now. But i will check again for seeds soon. As richnorm said on the other thread try contacting Gary, he would be your best bet for the seeds youre after.

[PalmCode]

On 5/24/2022 at 1:17 AM, Tyrone said:

I bet they’ll all come up too. It’s very satisfying growing these from seed.

Yep the majority have come up now. I don't think the seed size makes any difference they all seem good. A few though are a bit strange... like this twin trunker and this one with double branches. Its early days but it could be interesting  to see how these turn out when they get bigger. I know Iv'e not seen this in Rhopalostylis seedlings before.

Some more pics.

[Jadd Correia]

Beast in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (September 2022)

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Come on pogobob show us your Rhopalostylis chatham island oceana at the new casa ! 

[Albey]

On 4/13/2021 at 7:14 PM, PalmCode said:

Dang. That is a pity you've had trouble with growing Chatham islands Nikau in Auckland. They go nuts where I live. After growing the typical Auckland Sapida for so long it's like a frigging miracle the Chatham island ones exist.

But it sounds like they don't do as well for everyone.

Better to grow Baurei in Auckland, as Chatham island forms are better suited to cooler climates.

[DoomsDave]

On 4/25/2011 at 12:10 PM, Got Palms said:

2 years old from a five gallon doing very well!

WHOA NELLY SHELLY AND GOOD SMELLY! 

[pogobob]

This is a second generation Chatham from my former garden now in my new garden 

[DoomsDave]

Scarramoosh scarramoosh can you do the fandango?

😍

[Tassie_Troy1971]

17 hours ago, pogobob said:

This is a second generation Chatham from my former garden now in my new garden 

Wow pogobob it's really cranking so much clear trunk now   !!