Phormium tenax 'Wharanui'. Harakeke cultivar.
Māori names
Māori names
Description
Harakeke cultivar
1) The following notes have been taken from the Flax Commissioners Report 1870, 1871:
Nairn, Hawkes Bay. Dressing. This variety grows better than Tāpoto. Wider leaf, red margin. Found in same localities.
Locke, East Coast. Wharanui and Oue next best after Tāpoto.
Mantell. Listed as Waranui
Nairn, Hawkes Bay. Soft fibre, used for fine mats
2) Best 1942: listed
3) Williams 1971: a variety of Phormium tenax usually scraped with a shell. Best was the informant, and in his ms notes he gives these synonyms: tāroa, whararahi.
4) Andersen 1926: in list of varieties
5) The ordinary flax for mats (Tunuku Karetai to Beattie, MS 582/E/11, Hocken). A coarser kind of flax (Te Paro to Beattie, ibid).
Dyes
Wharanui leaves used to make rough netting to catch the soot from the kiln for use in tattooing. Process described. (Colenso 1891)
