Phormium tenax 'Oue' or 'Tāpoto'. Harakeke cultivar. Notes from Heaphy 1870.
Māori names
Fibre
Notes from Heaphy 1870:
"The Oue or Tāpoto, yielding a beautiful glossy or silky fibre, but of so brittle a character as to require a mode of preparation in which a knife or scraping implement may not be used. The natives soak the leaf to soften the epidermis, which they strip off by shaking and drawing it through the hand, whence it obtains the name of "Tihore," by which the plant is generally, but improperly, known.
The Oue should be grown on a rich, deep soil, not swampy. The best fibre is very much prized, and is used for Kaitaka, or bordered mat. Some of this flax was manufactured in France into fabrics, that resembled fine jean and silk in delicacy of gloss. The Oue is frequently planted by the natives in borders to divide small cultivations near a village, and where it is convenient for occasional use in mat-making. In this case, it constitutes quite a property. It may be seen in the cultivations at Coromandel harbour, Kawhia, and the Waikato.
The Oue is rarely more than 5 feet high. The leaves are very glossy, and rather red at the edges, causing the plant to assume, at a distance, rather an orange-green colour, as against the bluish-green of other kinds. ... After steeping, the natives make the Oue leaves up into small bundles, and hang them on horizontal poles to dry, shaking and rubbing the leaf, from time to time, to get off the fleshy part of the leaf. ... It is important to remember that the Oue or Tihore should not be exported for rope-making purposes, nor, if possible, the other kinds for textile fabrics"
