Proto Central Eastern Polynesian Polynesian: *Naupata
REFLEXES IN SOME POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES:
Hawaiian: Naupaka (Scaevola species (Generic name), Goodeniaceae)
Mangareva: Naupata (Scaevola taccada "Sea lettuce", Goodeniaceae)
Pukapuka: Naupata (An unidentified plant name mentioned only in chants)
Tahitian: Naupata (Scaevola frutescens and S. taccada, Goodeniaceae)
Tuamotuan: Naupata (Scaevola spp.) ~ Ngāpata (Scaevola taccada), Goodeniaceae)
Rarotongan: Pō'utukava ngānga'u (Scaevola taccada -- see notes below)
Maori: Naupata ~ Taupata (Coprosma repens, Rubiaceae)

RELATED WORDS
Proto-Polynesian *Ngasu (Scaevola taccada, "Half-flower shrub", Goodeniaceae, and other seaside trees), from Proto-Oceanic *nanasu (Scaevola taccada) is indirectly reflected in the East Polynesian *Naupata, but the only clearly inherited forms in geographically East Polynesian languages are those in several of the Cook Islands languages, including the rather intriguing Rarotongan combination Po'utukava ngānga'u. Other Cook Island languages reflecting *ngasu include Mauke (nga'u), Ātiu (ngau), Manihiki (ngahu), Pukapuka (ngayu) and Palmerston Attol (ngashu), all denoting Scaevola taccada. The "pō'utukava" element in the Rarotongan name may reflect the resilience of this plant, its ability to survive in rugged littoral environments, and the silvery hairs on its leaves, all attributes shared with the other Cook Island pō'utukava, Sophora tomentosa, and the New Zealand pōhutukawa, Metrosideros excelsa.

See also the page for *Nau for information about the plants designated by the frst element in this name.

Of the two components in this word, the first (nau-) is clearly inherited, resonating with both Proto-Polynesia *ngasu (see notes above) and Proto Nuclear Polynesian *nau, a generic term which in East Polynesia came to designate plants of the genus Pimelia, rather similar in general appearance to the Scaevolas. The "-pata" element in this word seems simply to distinguish the two sets of plants. Apparently pata is or has been used as a synonym for naupata in the Tuamotus, and it is listed in the Williams dictionary as a synonym for the mānuka, Leptospermum scoparium and also to denote a variety of potato (in addition to its ordinary meanings of "a drop of water" or "a seed"). None of the plant-name usages seems particularly common, and they may simply be independent inventions.

All the Eastern Polynesian *naupata are shrubby plants with glossy leaves, quite variable in form depending on the environment (so the same species can be small trees in sheltered places or just low resilient shrubs in exposed situations where few other plants would grow), and vaguely reminiscent of the plants called Nau in Samoa, and the Lepidium species to which that name was attached in Eastern Poynesian.

The most widely distributed naupata is Scaevola taccada (photo on the left), which (as indicated in the "related words" box above) draws its Cook Islands names from the older source; much the same dual-name situation obtained for a while with its Latin names -- the debate among botanists as to whether it should properly be Scaevola sericea or S. taccada was quite lively in the 1990s. Warren Wagner and his co-editors settled decisively for S. sericea in the 1999 edition of their magisterial Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i (p.789), and that was the name used in the earlier version of this page. However, since then the pendulum of received opinion seems to have swung back to S. taccada.

Scaevola taccada, the "beach naupaka" in Hawaii, is distributed naturally from East Africa through the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia, Australia, Taiwan, and Polynesia including Hawaii. In Hawai'i the shrub is often cultivated in pots, and also used for beach stabilization. In the wild, it may be just a creeper along the sand, or a shrub three metres or more high. In shrub mode, in exposed places the leaves will be crowded at the end of bare, twisted branches; in favourable situations the whole plant will have a leafy apearance -- similar to the variations in their namesake the taupata (Coprosma repens) in Aotearoa.

There are several traditional Hawai'ian accounts of the origin of the distinctive "half-flower" characteristic of all Scaevola species (illustrated on the left). Angela Kepler (Hawaiian Heritage Plants, p.139) quotes a line from the Hawai'ian creation chant, the Kumulipo: "Naupaka was then born, which stands by the sea shore", and recounts a folk tale about a lovers' quarrel, in which the woman, Puna, grabbed a beach naupaka flower and ripped it in two, whereupon the gods changed all the flowers of the naupaka and its relatives into half-flowers. Puna refused to speak to her suitor until he brought her a complete flower. He searched high and low without success, and eventually died of a broken heart, leaving Puna to lament her intransigence. The flowers are actually deeply divided rather than cut in half, which allows easy access for certain insects. The plants are well adapted to life in rocky and sandy environments. Their thick leaves are coated with wax to enable them to retain water and reduce transpiration. The silvery hairs on the shiny leaf surface also reflect the sunlight and protect the leaf from wilting. The seeds float easily and remain viable after a year or more in salt water -- they actually germinate more readily if first soaked in seawater. The plant's survival is also enhanced its ability to tolerate large amounts of salt water in its tissues. The roots also spread and penetrate surface cracks easily, enabling the plant to remain anchored in sand, rocks and on cliffs.

The fruits (pictured left and in the gallery, below) are a source of famine foods, and the bark has been found an aid to digestion. In the Cook Islands and Samoa children use the hollowed-out stems for pea-shooters. In French Polynesia the crushed leaves are used as a dressing for coral cuts, and an extract from the fruit dissolved in green coconut milk is an antidote for fish poisoning -- this seems to be the only part of Polynesia where serious use is made of this plant, despite its being mentioned in the Kumalipo! However, the pith is occasionally used for dancing kilts in the Cook Islands, and for leis in Samoa.

The superficial similarities among the Eastern Polynesian nau (Lepidium spp.) and naupata (Scaevola spp. in the tropics, and Coprosma repens in New Zealand) are illustrated in the gallery below. There are over a hundred species of Scaevola, mostly native to Australia. Nine are present in Hawaii, eight endemic and one, S. taccada, distributed throughout the tropical Pacific and Indian Ocean coastal areas. It is thought that the ancestors of these plants have reached Hawai'i in three waves: S. taccada, probably in several separate arrivals; S. glabra, which appears to have links with the New Caledonian species S. indigofera; and the others, which may also have New Caledonian connections (Wagner et al., Manual, p. 782). All share the name naupaka.

As well as their form and resilience, these plants also have medicinal qualities in common. The Samoan naunau (related botanically to the Māori naupata) is used in Samoan traditional medicine as a remedy for stomach complaints and diarrhoea. In the Tuamotos, according to the Stimson & Marshall dictionary entry for ngapata (a species of Scaevola, also known as naupata and apparently also pata), "the inner bark of the roots is scraped and mixed with monongi in the preparation of a remedy to draw sores, and boils; the berries are squeezed directly into the ear to relieve pain and cause ear-boils to break". The New Zealand naupata was one of a number of Coprosma (karamū) to which were ascribed powerful spiritual powers in connection with healing and general wellbeing.