Cherry-sized fruit of Butia capitata are moreish, tasting quite a bit like the drink Tang, perhaps because of fairly high vitamin C content. Fruit often fall to the ground once ripe and sometimes before they are ripe. I tried ripening a few off the tree inside, it appeared to work, at least to an extent. Different bunches of fruit ripen at different times, so are available fresh, over quite a long period. The fruit does have fibers which can stay stuck in the teeth for several hours but which do not pose an obstacle to eating. These fibers probably explain why it is often made into a drink, with the fibers sifted out presumably. A reasonably good food plant but takes up a lot of room.
This tree started producing fruit about 14 years after planting in Wellington, New Zealand (hardiness zone 9.)
The frond stumps on the trunk of palms like Butia capitata are a handy place to insert (in this case edible) epiphytes.
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