 The fruits are green at first, turning a bright red when ripe, and are a favorite food of the endangered Norfolk Island parakeet.The growing tip of the palm was used by early settlers as a vegetable and is said to have tasted like a nut when raw and like an artichoke bottom when boiled.In the Southern Hemisphere outside its habitats, "R. baueri" is cultivated in mainland New Zealand as a faster-growing alternative to the otherwise similar "R. sapida", the nikau palm, the only other species in the genus "Rhopalostylis".