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

This name has has a very interesting evolution on its way to Aotearoa and after its arrival here. It seems to have started out in Oceania as a generic term for a group of frond-bearing trees, especially cycads and tree ferns. In Polynesia, as noted in page pn the Proto Polynesian source word, *pala (link at the top of this page), it came to mean primarily very large ferns, and in Eastern Polynesia, especially ferns of the Marattia family, which have edible roots. In some of these languages, like Maori and Hawaiian, the reflexes of *pala also denote edible roots of secondary importance, or varieties of the more important ones (in Hawaii, for example, pala denotes the native fern Marattia douglasii, and varieties of taro and kumara). It is very tempting to link this extension of the meaning of *pala to the Proto Malayo Polynesian word for a seed coconut, *paraq, which would give the word as applied to roots quite a different history from the fern name. However, there is no supporting evidence outside Eastern Polynesia for this meaning having left Remote Oceania, so it looks as if this possible convergence of two historically separate words is simply the result of an extension of the meaning of the fern name, because of the properties of the fern root.

In Aotearoa both meanings -- the fern and its tuberous roots -- are retained, and by analogy the range of meanings was extended also to include the edible roots of the orchids Gastrodia cunninghamii and Orthoceras novaeseelandiae, along with good quality aruhe (the roots of the bracken fern Pteridium esculentum) and the roots of a species of Cordyline (Tï para), probably C. fruticosa. The fern is the largest fern in the New Zealand flora, apart from the tree ferns, and was once quite abundant in damp forests in northern New Zealand, but is now relatively rare thanks to the depredations of feral pigs.Those that survive the pigs are likely to have their fronds devoured by cattle if growing in unfenced bush. It is very slow-growing but quite spectacular even when young. The fronds of mature ferns can be three or four metres long, and two metres in breadth at their widest point. Its Hawaiian counterpart, Marattia douglasii, is also slow-growing, just a little smaller than the New Zealand para (fronds up to 3 metres long), and also greatly threatened in the wild by pigs. Both these ferns are small, however, compared with some other members of the Marattia family, like Angiopteris evecta, known in Niue by the related name palatao.

Of the various roots called "para", apart from those of the fern itself, the most important in terms of regular consumption were those of the rauaruhe (Pteridium esculentum, bracken fern) and the tï (Cordyline fruticosa). Both were prepared by soaking, steaming, roasting and pounding, which, in the case of the fern root, removed the carcinogens which are present in both the roots and fronds of the rauaruhe.

Of the orchids, the Gastrodia was the most important. It seems at certain times of the year to have been a regular part of the diet of the Tuhoe people in the Urewera. It was normally harvested in the winter. The Tuhoe had two names for the orchid, Perei or Hüperei, the "real name", and Mäukuuku, and would only use the latter name when looking for it, as if it heard its real name uttered it would be warned and disappear. According to Andrew Crowe (Field Guide, p. 97), the Tahitians observed a similar protocol when searching for arrowroot. The tubers can grow to about 5 cm thick and 25 cm. long, with several to a plant. The flowering stem grows to about a metre high. These are very unusual plants in that their nourishment is obtained from a symbiotic relationship with a fungus that lives on certain kinds of tree roots; they have no roots of their own and are therefore impossible to grow or cultivate outside a part of the forest with the right biosystem. Undoubtedly because of this, it was regarded by those for whom it was a significant part of their diet as being a plant different from any other -- it did not "grow" in the forest, but was rather put there as a gift from the gods.

The roots of the Orthoceras orchids are described by Andrew Crowe (p. 81) as having "a crisp tender texture and a sweet, watery taste" when eaten raw. There appear to be two species in New Zealand, both with edible tubers and plants of open scrubland and clay banks: O. novaeseelandiae, found in the North Island and northern South Island, and O. strictum, confined to the Auckland region, but also found in Australia. The flowering stems are about 70cm high and the tubers are quite small, about 5cm by 1 cm. The plants of both species of Orthoceras are known by another hertiage name: Mäikaika, probably derived from a Proto Eastern Polynesian word *Maika the term for the Polynesian-introduced cooking bananas.