Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

waiūatua, waiū-o-kahukura (Best, Williams); tauwau, ueueeke (both recorded in Taylor 1855) 

Māori spurge, milkweed, shore spurge

May have medicinal use - "seeing so very many species of the same genus have long been medicinally employed" (Colenso 1868a)

Put weed (kerosene tin full) in enough water for a bath, boil for an hour, strain, use for bath and for skin diseases (Poverty Bay Federation of Women's Institutes Cookery Calendar, mid-1930s.

Related pharmacology in Brooker, Cambie and Cooper 1987.

See Riley 1994 for information on medicinal uses of related plants elsewhere in the world.

Many allied plants are poisonous (Aston 1923b)

Legend concerning plant in Best 1907, p233