MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 October 1938, Page 4

MAORI MEMORIES

TITOKI AND OTHER TREES. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The titoki is unique among plant life. Its features are the strikingly beautiful foliage, the bright red fruit, the black seed standing out like the eye of a bird, and the brown cup like shell, which suggests the work of the Maori bush fairy, Patu pai Arehe. It is unlike the fruits of any country. Its taste is strange to our palate, but was a relish to the Maori. As a matured shrub its beauty is without a rival. Puriri reaches a height of sixty feet, and grows freely in the northern parts. The bloom is brilliant in its contrast to the foliage. The wood is valued because of its durability under all conditions. It is of slow growth and will probably be the first of our trees to become destroyed by the axe. Pukatea (shining leaves) is among the tallest of New Zealand frees, growing to 160 feet. Found mainly in swamps, they are protected against storms by being flanked with spreading buttresses up to 25 feet from the ground. A good example of the GreatArchitect’s design. Of the glorious rata there are seven varieties. Some never grow beyond the creeper stage. They bear red, cream or white flowers, and are most beautiful when grown on rough stems of mamaku or ponga tree-ferns in the pergola. Larger varieties cling to the stems of forest trees, gradually strangling their victims, whose sap they extract and thus become giants of the forest.

Pohutukawa, known as our Christmas tree and called the downy rata, is said to be our handsomest flowering tree. It flourishes near the sea and on rocky ground. The Maori regarded it with religious awe, and its clinging branches form the entrance to his underworld “Te Reinga.”