This name has had a very interesting evolution on its way to Aotearoa and after its arrival here. It seems to have started out in Oceania as a generic term for a group of frond-bearing trees, especially cycads and tree ferns. In Polynesia, as noted in page on the Proto Polynesian source word, *pala (link at the top of this page), it came to mean primarily very large ferns, and in Eastern Polynesia, especially ferns of the Marattia family, which have edible roots. In some of these languages, like Māori and Hawaiian, the reflexes of *pala also denote edible roots of secondary importance, or varieties of the more important ones (in Hawaii, for example, pala denotes the native fern Marattia douglasii, and varieties of taro and kumara). It is very tempting to link this extension of the meaning of *pala to the Proto Malayo Polynesian word for a seed coconut, *paraq, which would give the word as applied to roots quite a different history from the fern name. However, there is no supporting evidence outside Eastern Polynesia for this meaning having left Remote Oceania, so it looks as if this possible convergence of two historically separate words is simply the result of an extension of the meaning of the fern name, because of the properties of the fern root.
In Aotearoa both meanings -- the fern and its tuberous roots -- are retained, and by analogy the range of meanings was extended also to include the edible roots of the orchids Gastrodia cunninghamii and Orthoceras novaeseelandiae, along with good quality aruhe (the roots of the bracken fern Pteridium esculentum) and the roots of a species of Cordyline (Tī para), probably C. fruticosa.
 The fern, Ptisina salicina, is the largest fern in the New Zealand flora, apart from the tree ferns, and was once quite abundant in damp forests in northern New Zealand, but is now relatively rare thanks to the depredations of feral pigs.Those that survive the pigs are likely to have their fronds devoured by cattle if growing in unfenced bush. The bases of the fronds (illustrated on the left) are distinctively swollen where they are attached to the edible rhizome. (These swellings are known botanically as pulvini, and occur also in some flowering plants.) The fern is very slow-growing but quite spectacular even when young. It is also very resilient -- the clumps in Te Māra Reo have survived several attacks by invading cattle and also drought over a twenty year span. The fronds of mature ferns can be three or four metres long, and two metres in breadth at their widest point. Its Hawaiian counterpart, the pala, Marattia douglasii, is also slow-growing, just a little smaller than the New Zealand para (fronds up to 3 metres long), and also greatly threatened in the wild by pigs.
Both these ferns are small, however, compared with some other members of the Marattia family, like Angiopteris evecta, known in Niue by the related name palatao.
Of the various roots called "para" in Aotearoa, apart from those of the fern itself, the most important in terms of regular consumption were those of the rauaruhe (Pteridium esculentum, bracken fern) and the tī; (Cordyline fruticosa). Both were prepared by soaking, steaming, roasting and pounding, which, in the case of the bracken fern, removed the carcinogens which are present in both the roots and fronds of the rauaruhe. The alternative names for the King Fern, para reka (delicious para), parauwhi and parauhi (yam-like para) refer directly to the edible root; it is also occasionally referred to as mouku, a name generally applied to the fern Asplenium bulbiferum, which has edible shoots used as salad greens.
 Of the orchids, the Gastrodia was the most important. Its tuber (illustrated on the left) seems at certain times of the year to have been a regular part of the diet of the Tuhoe people in the Urewera. It was normally harvested in the winter. The Tūhoe had two names for the orchid, Perei or Hūperei, the "real name", and Māukuuku, and would only use the latter name when looking for it, as if it heard its real name uttered it would be warned and disappear. According to Andrew Crowe (Field Guide, p. 97), the Tahitians observed a similar protocol when searching for arrowroot. The tubers can grow to about 5 cm thick and 25 cm. long, with several to a plant. The flowering stem grows to about a metre high. These are very unusual plants in that their nourishment is obtained from a symbiotic relationship with a fungus that lives on certain kinds of tree roots; they have no roots of their own and are therefore impossible to grow or cultivate outside a part of the forest with the right biosystem.
Undoubtedly because of this, it was regarded by those for whom it was a significant part of their diet as being a plant different from any other -- it did not "grow" in the forest, but was rather put there as a gift from the gods.
The roots of the Orthoceras orchids are described by Andrew Crowe (p. 81) as having "a crisp tender texture and a sweet, watery taste" when eaten raw. There is one currently recognized species in New Zealand, with edible tubers and plants of open scrubland and clay banks. O. novae-zeelandiae, also known as Paratawhiti or Ikaika, is found in the North Island and northern South Island. A rather similar Australian species, O. strictum, was thought to be native also to New Zealand but confined to the Auckland region. In Volume II of the Flora of New Zealand, L.D. Moore and L. Edgar combine the New Zealand species with the Australian, with which it shares many features; however they are once more separated, and it is thought that the plants formerly identified as O. strictum in New Zealand are instead variants of the local species. The flowering stems are about 70cm high and the tubers are quite small, about 5cm by 1 cm. The species is also known by another hertiage name: Māikaika, possibly derived from a Proto Eastern Polynesian word *Maika, the term for the Polynesian-introduced cooking bananas.
It should be noted that with the orchids, although the flowers of the orchids are beautiful, as shown by their portraits in the gallery, they are very small and easily overlooked. There is a 5 mm guide on the photograph of the Orthoceras flower in the gallery below. The Gastrodia flowers are only a little larger, although the flowering stem may be a metre and a half tall with over 100 flowers on it. The flowering stem of the Orthoceras is much shorter, about 20 cm tall.
Parapara ("like or reminiscent of a Para") is an alternative name for the Whauwhau, Pseudopanax arboreus, perhaps a reference to the archaic use of *Pala to refer to tree ferns, but more likely a reference to the bird-catching parapara tree Ceodes brunoniana, a name possibly related to the homophonous term para "dirt, rubbish, mess" because of the bird-catcher's sticky clusters of fruits.
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Psitana salicina - Para
(In forest setting. Photo: (c) Wayne Bennett, NZPCN)
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Flower of Gastrodia cunninghamii - Perei, Māukuuku
(Greatly enlarged. Butterfly Creek, Eastbourne. Photo: (c) Jeremy Rolfe, NZPCN) |
Flowers of Orthoceras novae-zeelandiae - Māikaika, Paratawhiti
(Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt. Photo: (c) Jeremy Rolfe, NZPCN)
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Leaf of frond of very young plant of Psitana salicifolia - Para
(Te Māra Reo. Photo: RB) |
Flower-stalk of Orthoceras novae-zeelandiae - Māikaika, Paratawhiti
(Tararua Forest Park, Wellington. Photo: (c) Jeremy Rolfe, NZPCN)
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Top of flower-stalk of Gastrodia cunninghamii - Perei, Māukuuku
(Butterfly Creek, Eastbourne. Photo (c) Jeremy Rolfe, NZPCN) |
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