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Peraxilla tetrapetala. Pirirangi. Red-flowering mistletoe.

Name document
Food
Traditions

Click to collapse Previous names Info

Elytranthe tetrapetala, Loranthus decussatus, Loranthus fieldii, Loranthus punctatus (Colenso), Loranthus tetrapetalus

Click to collapse Māori names Info

PIRIRANGIpikirangi; pikiraki (southern term; Tunuku Karetai in Beattie, MS 582/E/11, Hocken), pirinoa; rorerore (Taylor 1855, Best 1907).

 pirita: generic name for mistletoes, also supplejack. 

The flowers, or when in flower: korukoru

Click to collapse Common names Info

Click to collapse Description Info

Grows as parasite on tawai (Nothofagus) trees round Waikaremoana (Best 1907)

[Although Williams 1971 gives korokoru as P. colensoi in flower, the description in Best could also refer to P. tetrapetala. Ed. ]

Click to collapse Food Info

Berries eaten (Tunuku Karetai in Beattie, MS 582/E/11, Hocken).

Children used berries of pikiraki as chewing-gum. Berries are sweet and go into a pulp that can be chewed for a long time.... Taste pleasant enough while it lasted (Beattie 1994)

Click to collapse Traditions Info

"Legend says that the pikiraki was the last plant remaining in the kit of Tane....... He looked at it tenderly and said "I cannot let my last child lie on the ground', and that is why it is a parasitic plant perched high up on the big trees, a kind of mistletoe with red flowers" (Beattie 1920)

Click to collapse Notes Info

"Mr Field gives rorerore as the Native name of a red-flowering Loranthus in the Taupo district" (Best 1907)

Click to collapse Metadata Info

12092224-6b29-4807-80ba-a35a2beac755
name
28 May 2007
1 July 2020
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