Photos of wild nikau (Rhopalostylis sapida) in New Zealand.

The nikau is New Zealand's only native palm, and the world's southernmost palm species; its natural distribution on the mainland of New Zealand currently ends at Banks Peninsula near Christchurch on the east coast of South Island. An isolated population exists slightly further south and several hundred kilometres to the east, on the Chatham Islands at 44°18'S. The nikau's distinctive, stiffly upswept form is shared by a number of other arecoid palms native to islands in the southwest Pacific, including Hedyscepe canterburyana and Lepidorrachis mooreana of Lord Howe Island, and various Basselinia species of New Caledonia, and may be an adaptation to the windy, mild, humid climates of this part of the world.

The nikau is common in bush reserves in the upper North Island and round much of the island's coast, extending halfway down the east and west coast of South Island. It is most often seen in gullies and the lower slopes of river valleys. Although extremely shade tolerant, it can also grow with its upper trunk and crown out in the open, in suitably humid environments. There is a certain amount of regional variation, particularly in the angle at which the fronds are splayed. Those around Auckland and further north have almost columnar crowns while the ones on the East Cape of North Island, and the coasts of South Island have more widely splayed fronds. The red berries are eaten, and the seeds dispersed, by the large native pigeon.

Nikaus are much depicted in landscape paintings by New Zealand artists. There are a series of steel nikaus along a walkway outside the public library in Wellington. In recent years it, along with other natives, has been used in amenity plantings in urban public places in New Zealand, but it is not planted a great deal in private gardens. It is a slow growing palm; fifteen years can elapse before it begins to develop a trunk.