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Introduction. A note on botanical names.
Words derived from the Proto-Oceanic tree name *kalaka have been used to denote a local species of the genus Planchonella in many Oceanic languages. The botanical classification of the trees has been disputed over the decades, and the species have been shifted between the related genera Planchonella and Pouteria several times; they will still be found under one classification or the other in different works and databases. Fortunately, there seems to be general agreement about the family (Sapotaceae).
The status of the species has also been a subject of controversy, because of the variability in the form of individual plants -- the native New Zealand and Fijian plants have been grouped together as a single species, Planchonella costata by some botanists, on occasions along with the Polynesian species noted here under the name P. tahitensis, and regarded as one of several separate species by others. The botanical name applied to the New Zealand tree was first used (in the form of Achras costata) by the Austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher in 1833, to describe specimens from Norfolk Island; the generic name was shifted to Planchonella by the French botanist J. B. Louis Pierre in 1890. It was later thought to be a species in its own right, and given the name Planchonella novo-zelandica by H.H. Allan in The Flora of New Zealand in 1961. This was a reinstatement of the specific name originally proposed by F.G.H. Mueller (a German botanist resident in Australia for 50 years) in 1875. The current consensus is that this species is endemic to the northern part of Te Ika a Maui in Aotearoa, and Norfolk Island, with the name P. costata reinstated for both the New Zealand and Norfolk Island trees.
In 1991, the botanist Terence Pennington's The Genera of the Sapotaceae was published by the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. In this influential work he argued that the morphological differences used to separate species in the genus Planchonella from those in Pouteria were not significant or consistent enough to justify the division at that level, so he proposed that they be included in a single genus, Pouteria. This proposal was accepted by many botanists, hence the alternation between Planchonella and Pouteria in reference to the various species with local names reflecting Proto-Polynesian *kalaka. The change, however, was not unquestioned, and in 2005 the Swedsh botanists Ulf Swenson and Arne Anderberg proposed that the (mainly Australasian and Pacific) species grouped in the Oligotheca section of Pouteria be recognized once more as Planchonella.
The Australian-based botanist Triguh Trione and associates reached similar conclusions in 2007 from a molecular study questioning the validity of Pennington's 1991 combination of Planchonella in an enlarged Pouteria. However in this study P. sandwicensis seemed to be out on its own, genetically far removed from other species of Planchonella/Pouteria s.l. They confirmed also that the New Zealand P. costata was quite separate from the Vanuatu P. costata, with which it had been merged by Pennington in 1991. This left the Pouteria as comprised mainly of Central and South American species, with a few outliers in West Africa and Indonesia, and Planchonella as a Southeast Asian and Pacific Islands grouping, reaching as far as Hawai'i and Aotearoa.
Ulf Swenson and colleagues published in 2019 a very interesting study of the ages of the members of the family Sapotaceae in the Pacific. The genus Planchonella seems to have originated somewhere in the Sahul Shelf region -- the now submerged area between Northern Australia and New Guinea. For the last 23 million years Fiji has been an important way station for dispersal into the Pacific, and has been colonized by Planchonella between 3 and 5 times. Aotearoa's P. costata arrived about 23 million years ago. P. tahitensis dispersed to Vanuatu and the Cooks about 6.6 million years ago, and to other Pacific Islands considerably more recently. The Hawaiian lineage of Planchonella arrived in Hawai'i before the present high islands were formed, about 11 million years ago. It probably island-hopped from the now largely submerged Necker and Gardner Islands to Kauai and the current islands in the chain as they became inhabitable for vegetation.
Planchonellas and other trees with names reflecting Proto-Polynesian *Kalaka
The Planchonellas are forest trees, with individual mature plants of the various species found in both the canopy and subcanopy. In New Zealand, the current and original Planchonella costata is found mostly in coastal areas in Northland, Auckland, the Bay of Plenty and the East Coast regions. If it had been noticed by the original settlers it probably would have been given the name karaka, ahead of the species currently bearing that name. However the local Planchonella is neither common nor widely distributed, so the look-alike Corynocarpus lavegata was able to get ahead in the queue. The Aotearoa species is now known as tawāpou, pou, or orewa.
Karaka (Aotearoa) Corynocarpus laevigata
The Planchonella trees have a milky sap, conspicuous leaves and even more conspicuous large berries which in some species change gradually from green to bright red as they ripen. It is not at all surprising that the early Polynesians mistook the New Zealand karaka, Corynocarpus laevigatus, for its tropical namesakes, despite the New Zealand tree's lack of latex. The local and tropical trees are in their general appearance at all stages of growth very much look-alikes. The nature of the fruit is different, however, visual similarities notwithstanding. Desptite their attractive appearance the Planchonella fruits are not really edible by people, although Malcolm Ross reports that on the island of Santo Planchonella fruits are sometimes roasted and eaten after being washed to remove the latex (Lexicon, Vol. 3, p.203). If this was also done occasionally in Polynesia, it would have been a useful practice for the preparation of the Corynocarpus fruits, whose kernels were an important food source, but had to be heated and washed first to remove the powerful toxic glycoside they contained. (Instead they had the precedent of the "Tahitian chestnut", Inocarpus fagifer, which requires similar treatment to make it edible.)
Planchonella tahitensis: Karaka (Ngāpūtoru), Kalaka (Tonga, Niue), 'Ala'a (Samoa)
The most widely distributed of the tropical kalaka is Planchonella tahitensis. This species is found natively from Fiji and Tonga to the Tuamotus and the Cook Islands. It was for a while known botanically as P.costata var. vitiensis, among other names, most recently P. grayana. Even in quite recent resources this species is referred to by newer and older names: Pouteria grayana on the Cook Islands Biodiversity Database (2023), Planchonella grayana in W.A. Whistler's Flora of Samoa (2022) and Planchonella tahitiensis in W.R. Sykes Flora of the Cook Islands (2016). It is a large tree with the characteristically milky sap, which grows in littoral and lowland forests. It reaches 20 m or more in Samoa, but apparently only 8 m in Tonga and 6-14 m in Fiji. Smith (Flora Vitiensis Nova) reports that it can be a stunted shrub only a metre high in exposed rocky coastal environments in Fiji. The wood is used in boat and house construction and for carving artifacts in Samoa. It has large fruits up to 5 cm long, yellowish green or green when ripe, with a white bloom or glaucous (pale blue) sheen and dark brown mottled seeds. The fruit are favoured by bats. It has a rough outer bark and pale orange inner bark and wood. A smaller related tree, P. membranacea, growing to about 5 m, is known as kalaka uli ("black kalaka") in Tonga.
Planchonella garberi: 'Ala'a (Samoa)
Planchonella garberi is found in Samoa and Niue. Smith also locates it in Tonga and Fiji, but Art Whistler thinks those plants may in fact belong to Planchonella membranacea. In Samoa P. garberi is a lowland tree found from sea level to 500 m. The tree grows to about 20 m high in Samoa with the usual large glossy-green leaves and milky sap. The bark is grey, with a thick, yellow-brown and cream streaked middle bark The good quality white wood is used for making house posts and artefacts. The tree bears clusters of tiny white flowers, followed by shiny red to dark purple fruit, 3-5 cm long with 4 to 5 seeds. The fruit are sought enthusiastically by pigeons and bats.
Chariessa samoensis: ?(')Ala'a (Samoa)
The Samoan tree Chariessa samoensis (Icacinaceae) is listed in Milner's dictionary as ala'a (no initial glottal stop). However, in his Rainforest Trees of Samoa Art Whistler describes this tree under the revised name of Citronella samoensis, and states that no Samoan name has been recorded for this species (p. 85, also Flora, p. 134). Erling Christophersen however also gives the name as ala'a (p. 128), the same name that he records for Planchonella garberi (p. 171). This Samoan name recorded for the Chariessa may be a case of mistaken identity, and not cognate with Proto-Polynesian *Kalaka. C. samoensis is a small forest tree grows from 3 to 8 metres high and found in lowland and high altitudes. It has glossy black fruit 2.5-3.5 cm long, possibly a bit large for pigeons to swallow. It does not seem to have any particular uses.
Elaeocarpus floridanus: Karaka (Rarotonga)
The Rarotongan Elaeocarpus floridanus is a relation of the New Zealand hīnau, and like the Planchonellas and the other "*kalaka" trees, has large, conspicuous fruits and striking foliage. It is widely distributed, from the Bismarck Archipelago through Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and Fiji to Samoa, Niue and the Cook Islands. In Samoa it is found mostly in disturbed forests from sea level to 850 m. The wood is sometimes used there for house posts and canoes; In the Cook Islands it is a valuable timber tree, and elsewhere it is used for axe handles, banana cases, canoe hulls and firewood. Its lance-shaped leaves, about 10-20 cm long, turn red with age. The small white flowers are borne in many-flowered racemes, and followed by blue drupes about 2 cm long with a single seed; these fruits are eaten by pigeons wherever the tree is found. This is another tree that has undergone a series of Botanical name changes in recent years, from Elaeocarpus rarotongensis to E. tonganus and currently E. floridanus. The local names are also varied, for example: karaka in Rarotonga, kuāna on Mangaia, 'orotea or rare on Atiu, 'a'amati'e and polo in Samoa.
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