Proto Nuclear Polynesian: *Futu
REFLEXES IN SOME POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES:
Tongan, Niuean, Samoan : Futu (Barringtonia asiatica, "Fish poison tree ", Lechythidaceae)
Marquesan, Tahitian, Tuamotu: Hutu (Barringtonia asiatica)
Rarotongan: 'utu (Barringtonia asiatica)
Maori: Hutu (Ascarina lucida, Chloranthaceae); Pōhutukawa, Hutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa, Myrtaceae)

COGNATE REFLEXES IN SOME OTHER AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES
Ivatan (Northern Philippines): Vuton (Barringtonia asiatica, "Fish poison tree", Lechythidaceae)
Tagalog (Philippines): Boton, Botong (Barringtonia asiatica)
Javanese (Indonesia): Butun (Barringtonia asiatica)
Wayan, Bau (Fiji): Vutu (Barringtonia asiatica)

This is a word that has been carried throughout Austronesia with little change in form or meaning -- Barringtonia asiatica is called Boton (= Butun) in Tagalog and most Philippine languages (Vuton in Batanes Islands, the closest point to Taiwan from where the word was dispersed) and Futu, Hutu or 'utu in the Polynesian languages wherever it is found. The tree grows to about 20 metres high, with a thick trunk and spreading branches. It has large leaves (up to 40 cm long) crowded at the end of the branches, with short stalks. The tree is native from Madagascar to the Marquesas, but may be a Polynesian introduction at the Eastern end of this range.

Barringtonia asiatica was not introduced to Hawai'i or Aotearoa during the period of Polynesian expansion, and its Austronesian name is not found in Hawaiian, but the name at least was carried to Aotearoa and applied to an apparently quite different tree, Ascarina lucida, a small forest tree growing to about 6 metres high, with quite different leaves. However the fruit of the New Zealand hutu, while not at all like that of its tropical namesake, does vaguely resemble the unopened flower buds of the Barringtonia. The New Zealand tree is also aromatic, and this may have reminded the early Polynesian explorers of the aromatic flowers of the Barringtonia. Hutu also formed part of a new name apparently originating in the Cook Islands, for the pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa), which does have flowers and a shape reminiscent of the original *futu, and, like the Barringtonia, is a prominent shoreline tree.

In the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific the Barringtonia is a characteristic tree of swamp and coastal forests. It can even stand having its roots immersed in sea water for extended periods. The flower is made conspicuous by the stamens which take the form of long white filaments, sometimes tinged with pink. These are followed by a large, 4-angled fruit 8-12 cm. long (about the size of a fist) bearing a single seed. (Both flower and fruit are illustrated on the left.) The fruit floats on water, and, as with the mangrove and the coconut, the sea is a major means of its distribution. The fruits were also once used as fishnet floats in Samoa and Fiji. The seed is also ground up into a powder used to immobilize or kill fish (all parts of the plant carry powerful toxic saponins). The "poison" does not actually kill the fish, but acts as a narcotic making the stunned or immobilized fish easy to scoop up in a net. The ground seeds were wrapped up in leaves. put in baskets, or combined with sand and grit to make them sink, and then placed in shallow pools or relatively still patches of water frequented by fish. These days the futu seeds are generally replaced by other procedures. The mashed seeds however are also used in traditional Samoan medicine to cure skin ailments.

Apart from their use in wrapping mashed seeds to poison fish, the leaves were also used for covering the umu and wrapping the food to be cooked (without ill-effects to the consumers) in Tonga, and for preparing a special kind of emergency food in Eastern Samoa. For that, specially preserved cooked breadfruit was wrapped in airtight packets made fron futu leaves sewn together with fausele fibre, which were then buried in appropriate places for later use.

The wood is not highly regarded, but in Samoa was used occasionally in constructing plank canoes, and for boat parts and drums in the Cook Islands.

From a distance, Barringtonia in bloom would look very like a light-blossomed pōhutukawa, so it is not hard to imagine why the old name was reapplied in the combinations hutukawa and pōhutukawa. (See the further discussion of the "new" uses of reflexes of *futu in the page for *pōhutukawa.)