Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

parakaraka; makutu (Williams 1894). Best also gives Makutu as an alternate name. 

Kūmara cultivar. Orange-red colour of the fully ripe karaka fruit. A light reddish-orange variety of kūmara. Colenso believed this kūmara was the sort seen and obtained by Cook and his companions and named by them Chrysorrhizus (Colenso 1881b)

Cultivated in the northern districts - Bay of Islands, Hokianga, Kaitaia - and in Hawkes Bay and the East Coast. Red skin and flesh. Said to be "the oldest variety" (Colenso 1880)

Listed in Williams 1894 as a pre-European cultivar grown on the East Cape. He reports it as still in cultivation in 1894.

Listed by Best 1925 - "said by Ngati Porou to flower".