Pteridium esculentum. Aruhe. Fernroot. Chatham Islands. E aku a Kahu.
Māori names
Māori names
In Williams 1971:
Paranui is applied to fernroot with many coarse fibres.
Māpara is applied to fernroot with brownish coloured flesh.
Food
Pāwhati, māpara and paranui were taken by Kahu to the Chatham Islands (see section in Best 1942: 86). Also recorded in Whatahoro 1914: 73). Packed in calabash made of mataī bark laid on kahika [kahikatea] bark.
Te Rangi Hiroa 1949 records "e aku a Kahu" (Kahu's vine) as a fernroot variety introduced to the Chatham Islands by Kahu. More starch and less fibre than the local variety.
A missionary observer in the Chathams described how bracken was dug in a single harvest about the end of March when the rhizomes were mature. In the Urewera, fernroot was harvested in early summer when the rhizomes are new and soft. The Chatham Island roots would have been large, but tough and fibrous. (In New Zealand Nature Heritage offprint, n.d.)
