Kāpuka

Griselinia littoralis, "Broadleaf" (Griseliniaceae)

Alternative names for the kāpuka are māihiihi, pāpāuma, paraparauma, and tapatapauma.

ETYMOLOGY:
From PROTO EASTERN OCEANIC *buka, "Large littoral trees, including Pisonia species (Nyctagynaceae), and Gyrocarpus americanus (Hernandiaceae) ",
through PROTO CENTRAL PACIFIC *buka, As for Proto Eastern Oceanic, but expanded to include Hernandia nymphaefolia (Hernandiacae),
to PROTO POLYNESIAN *Puka Pisonia grandis, "Chinese Lantern Tree " (Nyctagynaceae), and other large littoral trees (generic name) + derivational prefix kā-.

COGNATE WORDS IN SOME OTHER POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES
Tongan: Puko (Pisonia grandis, Nyctagynaceae and Hernandia nymphaefolia, "Lantern tree", Hernandiaceae).
Niuean: Puka tea (Pisonia grandis, Nyctagynaceae).
Samoan: Pu'a (Hernandia nymphaefolia, "Chinese lantern tree", Hernandiaceae; Pu'a vai, Pisonia grandis, Nyctagynaceae).
Tikopia: Puka (Hernandia nymphaefolia, "Lantern tree", Hernandiaceae).
Marquesan: Puka (Hernandia nukuhivensis, Hernandiaceae).
Tahitian: [Puka (Passiflora foetida "love-in-a-mist", Passifloraceae)].
Tuamotuan: Puka, Pukatea (Pisonia grandis, Nyctagynaceae).
Rarotongan: Puka (Hernandia nymphaefolia "Chinese lantern tree ", Hernandiaceae; Pisonia grandis [a.k.a. Puka tea ], Nyctagynaceae).

RELATED MĀORI PLANT NAMES
The fruit of the kāpuka is known as huariki.
Puka (Meryta sinclairii, Araliaceae, Griselinia lucida, Griseliniaceae, and several other trees);
Pukapuka (Reduplicated form of Puka): Brachyglottis repanda "Rangiora", Asteraceae.
Pukatea (Puka + tea "white" Species name, "Common name", Familyaceae) [also cognates in Marquesan, Niuean, Rarotongan and Tuamotuan];
Akapuka (Aka "vine" + Puka) Griselinia lucida, "Puka, akapuka", Griseliniaceae.

The kāpuka has a number of local names, māihiihi, pāpāuma, paraparauma, and tapatapauma, in addition to this inherited one. Despite its Latin specific name, and the Polynesian association of "puka" as a name for littoral trees, the kāpuka is found in a wide variety of habitats; in the North Island it is found naturally south of the Aupouri peninsula it and favours higher altitudes, and is thus more common inland than on the coastl. It becomes common at sea level mainly in cooler southern latitudes. Although not a habitual epiphyte like the Akapuka (Griselinia lucida), it does not seem to like wet feet, and in wet ecosystems it may perch on logs or other trees before sending its roots down into the damp soil below. Griselinia lucida and G. littoralis are endemic to Aotearoa; the other 5 species in this genus are endemic to Chile. They can probably be counted among the "ghosts of Gondwana".

The kāpuka grows to about 17m high, with a rather gnarled, twisted habit of growth but abundant foliage. The oval leaves are leathery and less glossy than its counterpart, the akapuka, with mostly even leaf margins and between 2 and 10 cm long -- the margins of the somewhat larger leaves of Grisilenia lucida are noticeably higher on one side than the other of the leaf stalk, those of G. littoralis much less so. The under-surface is a lighter green than the upper, and the midrib and leaf stems are yellow, quite brightly so in young leaves.

The small flowers (only 3 or 4 mm across) appear in Spring. They are unisexual, and only male or female flowers will appear on particular trees. They arise from the axils of the leaves (the upper edges of where the leaf joins the branch or branchlet), near the tip of a branchlet. The flowers may be borne in panicles, or in single racemes (as illustrated in the photographs in the galleries above and below). The male flowers have 5 petals; the female flowers are followed by small, fleshy fruits (less than a centimetre long) bearing a single seed, green when young (as in the illustration on the left) and becoming purple or black when ripe. The flowers are pollinated by insects and wind; the fruit is eaten by tui and spread by them and other birds. The tree is one of those which may be severely attacked by possums -- the NZPC website has a photograph of a kāpuka defoliated by possums in a South Island forest.

Although the trunk may be 1.5m or more in diameter in mature trees, and the timber is very durable, usually only small items are made from the wood because of its twisted habit of growth. It is used as a hedge plant overseas because of its ability to stand both adverse conditions and heavy pruning, but employed much less so for this purpose in Aotearoa -- the Auckland Botanical Gardens have a page promoting the use of Kāpuka for shelter and formal hedges. There are however several cultivars, including variegated forms, available commercially.