Kūmara cultivar. Rekamāroa. Information from Tapsell (2).
Māori names
Māori names
Description
Pre-European kūmara cultivar.
Information taken from Tapsell 1947: 332. "This seems to have been the most easily cultivated and the most popular variety of the four named species, probably because of its larger size and fleshy contents, and the fact that it propagated more easily than the other three." [Taroamahoe, Pehu, Hutihuti]
"Invariably also, the root crop per plant gave a better yield in a good season, averaging three to five tubers per plant. It was more easily handled when planting out, being as hardy as the Island Red, but like this commercial variety, a poor keeper. There seems to be some doubt as to whether this is really an original kūmara, but it was certainly known to the old-time Māori long before the advent of the Pakeha".
The root is illustrated and the leaf drawn from a specimen lodged in the Auckland Museum in 1942.
Rekamāroa was grown in Maketu, Motiti Island, possibly Tauranga, Mokoia Island in Rotorua, possibly Orekei Pā, Auckland. (ibid: 332)
