Introduction
The Plants -- 1. Cyathea contaminans
-- 2. Cycas bourgainvilleana
-- 3. Marattia douglasii - Pala (Hawai'i)
-- 4. Campylopus vesticaulis - Para (Rapanui)
-- 5. Psitana salicina - Para (Aotearoa) and others
It seems that this term originally designated cycads and tree ferns generally. These would have included especially the cycad Cycas bougainvilleana which is found the core Oceanic regions of New Britain, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomons, and the tree fern Sphaeropteris glauca (a.k.a. Cyathea contaminans), which is widespread throughout this area, as well as being found elsewhere in New Guinea and in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
By the time the word reached Fiji and Western Polynesia, it seems to have been used primarily to refer to tree ferns and other large ferns of the Marattia family. In Eastern Polynesia it seems to have narrowed further, to designating ferns of the closely related genera Marattia and Ptisana, and their edible roots. In Aotearoa both meanings are retained, and by analogy there and in Hawai'i the range of meanings was extended also to include a range of edible roots (there are more details, and some further notes about the lexicography of this term on the page for Māori para). It is only the extended meaning which survived on Easter Island, where the term para came to designate a wetland moss which was used for medicine and food. The cognate terms seem similarly to have been applied primarily to a particular root (very likely that of Ptisana salicina) eaten as a famine food in Tahiti and the Marquesas.
A recent revision of the botanical family Marattiacea based on molecular evidence has separated the New Zealand fern formerly known as Marattia salicina from the genus Marattia and also combined related ferns in New Caledonia, the Society Islands, Norfolk Island and the Marquesas with it as a single species, Ptisana salicina. The Hawaiian Marattia remains in that genus. The ancestors of the ferns in this family are among the first to have evolved. The species and genera within this group have been treated differently by various authors, but for the moment the revision proposed by Andrew Murdock in 2008 seems to be generally accepted. This was based on the combined genetic and morphological analysis and, among other things, created a new genus, Ptisana, including the New Zealand representative of the family (also found in other parts of Polynesia) formerly known as Marattia salicina. The genus Marattia itself was reduced to just a few species, including the Hawaiian Marattia douglasii. Although they share many common characteristics, genetically the Hawaiian ferns turn out to be more closely related to those assigned to the genus Angiopteris than they are to their counterparts in Aotearoa.
The Plants -- 1. Cyathea contaminans
Cyathea contaminans (also known as Sphaeropteris glauca -- there are notes about this name duplication in Te Māra Reo Newsletter #4) is a tall tree-fern related to the mamaku, with a trunk 15-20 metres or more tall with thickened roots at the base and fronds up to 4m long. The stems of the fronds are spiny when thet first develop, and the stipe (the part of the frond with the leaves attached) is purplish towards the base with thin brown scales. The tree is widely distributed from Southeasr Asia to New Guinea and Fiji, found mainly along streams and in open places in the forest from about 200-1600 m above sea level. In part of the Philippines the sap is used medicinally as a remedy for wounds boils and ulcers, and for sponge baths and swellings of the lymph nodes. The fronds and plants are used for decorative purposes and the trunks form bases for epiphytic orchids. Malcolm Ross notes that in New Britain the trunks are used to make fishing spears and the fronds are a source of green vegetables. In Waya (West Fiji) the sap of young plants is applied externally to cure headaches, and the scales are used to stuff pillows. (The scales and hairs of the Sadleria and Cibotium ferns respectively were once used for similar purposes in Hawaii -- see the page for Proto-Eastern Polynesian *Mamaku). The pith was also used as a famine food.
2. Cycas bourgainvilleana
Cycads are an ancient order of coniferous seed-bearing plants, with palm-like foliage and the male and female cones borne on separate plants. Cycas bourgeanvilleana is native to New Britain, the Bismarck Archipelago, Bourgainville and the Solomon Islands. It grows near the coast in coral sand dunes and coastal forests. The trees grow up to 5 metres tall, and have a crown with abundant fronds over 2 m long, with narrow glossy-green leaflets up to 18 cm long and angled forward on the frond. The frond stalks are spiny. The seeds incorporate a spongy layer which enables them to float easily and thus aids their dispersal. They also hybridize readly with other closely-related species.
3. Marattia douglasii -- Pala (Hawai'i)
 In Hawaii the plant name para denotes the fern Marattia douglasii, the root of the fern when used as food, and also a variety of kūmara and a variety of taro. This species is unique to Hawai'i. Marattia douglasii has the swellings (pulvini) at the bases of it stems (see illustration on the left) which are typical of this family of ferns (Marattiaceae). Like its counterparts in Aotearoa and elsewhere it is eaten by pigs and other root-eating marauders. The fronds are 90 to 270 cm long with three or four sets of leaflets. The rhizomes are full of starch, as are the swellings (stipules) at the bases of the fronds. In hard times, these were baked and eaten as a famine food. The mucilage from the frond-stalks (stipes) was used as a treatment for bronchial and intestinal problems, and also as a laxitive.
Pieces of fronds were interwoven with maile (Alixia oliviformis) in leis to enhance their appearance and fragrance. They were also used to decorate the heiau (temples) during ceremonies. The fronds had important ceremonial use in the activities associated with the Makahiki harvest festival. In Hawai'i the Makahiki ceremonies honoured Lono as bringer of rain and winds. They began at the first new moon after Matal'i (Matariki, the Plieades constellation) was seen rising in the eastern sky at sunset, between mid-October and mid-December in the Gregorian calendar. (In Aotearoa the rising of Matariki at dawn, some time in June or July, marks the start of the Māori New Year, from 2022 a national holiday, and marked by appropriate ceremonies.)
In Hawai'i, the Makahiki ceremonies included processions around each island from one ahupua'a (a traditional land division, running from higher altitudes down to the sea) to another, carrying a pole two or three metres long (akua loa, literally "long god") topped by a carving representing the head of the god Lono (Rongo in Māori tradition) with a cross piece from which was hung tapa, representing a sail, and fronds of pala, symbolising the threat of starvation. The procession stopped at the entrance to the ahupua'a, before a stone altar topped with a block of kukui (candlenut) wood representing a pig (one of the forms taken by Lono), where gifts of live pigs and dogs, seafood, poi and also tapa and other goods were presented. Once accepted these were taken back by designated bearers to the residence of the mō'i (leading chief) of the district, carrying a shorter pole without a cross-piece (akua poko "short god"), decorated with the figure of a man in a feather helmet. Meanwhile the procession moved on to the next ahupua'a. When the akua loa and akua poko had departed, the land was released from tapu (equivalent of lifting a rāhui in Aotearoa) and fishing and food gathering could recommence. Commoners carried fronds of pala on their backs to symbolise the release of the land from tapu.
 4. Campylopus vesticaulis -- Para (Rapanui)
The other para or pala are principally ferns, but this one is a cushion moss. In their survey of the mosses of Easter Island (2002) Robert Ireland and Gilda Bellolio found this moss to be widely distributed throughout the island, collecting it from 6 of the 12 sites they investigated, with plants in the southwest corner, northwest interior, the Tere Vaca volcano in the northern corner, and in several locations on the Poke Peninsula in the east. Like many other mosses indigenous to Rapanui, this species is also found in Aotearoa. It probably earned the name para from the root-like rhyzoids, which have medicinal value. The creeping stem produces a myriad of upright shoots. The cushion mosses are very good at absorbing and retaining water, which works to their advantage in rocky places like Easter Island, where what are bogs in wet weather may dry out quickly in times of drought. The illustration on the right is of a specimen of this plant collected at Jackson's Bay, Westland, and filed under the synonym Campylopus paludosus. I have not been able to find a picture of C, vesticaulis taken in Rapanui. There is some doubt as to whether C. vesticaulis is actually present in Aotearoa, although it is included in lists of species common to Chile and New Zealand, and has been identified among the mosses growing in an Otago bog (Walker et al. 2001) in addition to the Westland specimen. However it is also known to have been confused with the very similar looking C. clavatus.
The only explicit information I have been able to find about the uses of this plant on Easter Island comes from Jordi Fuentes' Diccionario (1960). In the English-Pascuense section it is noted that "the root of this plant was used as medicine, food, etc." (p. 815); the Castellano-Pascuense entry implies that the "etc." may have covered a wide variety of uses: "Plantas usada para differentes menesteres domesticos. Generalamente solo la raiz." But for the moment, just what those "differentes menesteres" are or were, remains to be revealed.
5. Ptisana salicina - Para (Aotearoa), and others
Ptisana salicina has a page dedicated to it inder its Māori name, Para. This species is also found in many other parts of Polynesia under variations of the Proto Polynesian name. Its uses are similar, principally for decorative purposes and (traditionally) the roots may be harvested and cooked as a famine food. It may occasionally have been cultivated in Aotearoa as a stand-by for this purpose. According to Murdock Riley (Herbal, p.324) it was a favourite food of the warrior Te Rauparaha (c. 1768-1849) on one of his war expeditions.
Another possible candidate among ferns which may have have been called pala or para in the early proto-Polynesian era is Angiopteris evecta. This giant fern is described and illustrated on the page for Proto-Polynesian *Palatao.
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