Nestegis lanceolata. White maire.
Māori names
Māori names
Common names
Description
In Tūhoe tradition, two sexes of maire - maire raunui (large-leaved) is the male tree. The female tree is maire rauririki (small leaved). Some traditions outlined in Best 1907.
Domestic
Used for war implements and carved walking staves Also root pounders, flax beaters, digging sticks. Sheaves, cogs, wheelwrights" work (Colenso 1868a).
Bark beaters (Best 1898).
Used to make digging stick for fernroot, the kaheru ( Best 1902).
Wallace 1989 found 2 bowls, 34 fernroot beaters, 6 mauls, 4 weapons, 3 eel clubs, 10 composite spade blades, 6 ketu, 5 ko, 1 teka, 4 hoto made from maire among museum artefacts he tested.
Construction
Timber used for beams of storage houses (Best 1916)
Environment
The maire is the offspring of Te Pu-whakahara and Hine-pipi (Best 1907)
Pastime
A preferred wood for toboggans on East Coast ( Best 1925)
Notes
Two genera, Nestegis species and Mida salicifolia called Maire. Used for the same purposes. N. lanceolata and N. cunninghamii, along with pūriri, are the hardest of native timbers. The Tūhoe recognize two sexes of maire; the female tree is maire rauriki or maire-rau-ririki (Best 1907)
