NOTE - THIS PROTO-PAGE IS STILL IN THE EARLY STAGES OF CONSTRUCTION!

Both the trees which have inherited the name mämängi are endemic to Aotearoa, and each has a limited distribution. Coprosma arborea is found naturally in forests (both on the margins and as a sub-canopy plant) in the northern third of the North Island. C. repens is found throughout the North Island and in the northern part of the South Island.

Mead and Grove record a proverb about the mämängi which could apply to either or both of these trees:

He pü mämängi kï tahi, "A clump of taupata with a single word" -- that is, the berries are ripe in May, indicating definitively that summer and autumn have passed, and the cold season is here. [Meade & Grove, 662]

Coprosma repens has a number of aliases, all Polynesian heritage names: angiangi, naupata and taupata (see links above). Coprosma arborea seems to be known only as mämängi.

More information about Coprosma repens, as well as photographs, can be found on the page for naupata.

(Currently [October 2009] there are no plants of Coprosma arborea in Te Mära Reo, but that deficiency will soon be remedied!)