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Watch this space! This is one of the first pages written in 2009, at the prototype stage of this web site, which has been transferred with minimal changes to the newer format. It is still therefore "under construction", but contains the essential linguistic and botanical information, along with other material. Updated text and more pictures will be added progressively as soon as time permits (new pages for plant names not yet discussed are being given priority). If you would like this page to be updated sooner than planned, please email a note to temaarareo at gmail.com.
 This is another plant name which appears after a group of Polynesian adventurers left Tonga and settled in Samoa, but before the isolation of Eastern Polynesia. Judging by the Samoan and Rapa Nui reflexes of *nau, it was originally a rather general term, applied to a number of different shrubs and creepers with aromatic and medicinal properties. The glossy leaves may be an additional thread linking the plants with names incorporating the word-root nau (see the page on *Naupata for more about this). In Central Eastern Polynesia, the associations with distinctive aroma, medicinal properties and prostrate form with glossy leaves seem to have remained, but the focus has narrowed to species of the pepperwort genus, Lepidium, as the core term, widening out again in derivative forms with a distinctive qualifier.
Thus Central Eastern Polynesian *Naupata refers to plants of the genus Scaevola where this is found in tropical areas, and returns to denote a species of Coprosma in New Zealand (echoing the referent of one of the Samoan reflexes of *nau -- the naunau, Geophila herbacea is a member of the Rubiaceae (coffee family) closely related to the Coprosmas). Similarly the Maori Naupiro ("Stinking or smelly nau") refers either to a coprosma, or a botanically unrelated aromatic herb. (Go to the linked pages for more information about the Maori words and the plants they denote.)
The other Samoan reflex, nau, is the name of an aromatic climber, Alyxia stellata, related to the Hawaiian maile.
 [The NZ Plant Conservation Network's newsletter, Trilepidea, for May 2020 has a very interesting and comprehensive article by Peter de Lange discussing this plant name, the members of this genus, and the stories surrounding some of them.]
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| Photographs: The inset photos are [1] Lepidium bidentatum (Nau, Rarotonga; Naunau, Hawai'i), Photo: (c) Gerry Carr, University of Hawai'i, (2) Lepidium oleraceum (Nau, Aotearoa), Photo: Department of Conservation. The other photographs are acknowledged in the captions. We are grateful to all the photographers for permission to use their work.
Citation: This page may be cited as: R. A. Benton (2009) "The Proto-Polynesian plant name *Nau" (web page periodically updated), Te Māra Reo. "http://www.temarareo.org/PPN-Nau.html" (Date accessed)
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