Karakariki

Streblus heterophyllus [formerly Paratrophis microphylla] (Moraceae)

Related inherited name: karaka (see separate page)

ETYMOLOGY:
From Proto Polynesian *Kalaka, Planchonella^ spp. (Moraceae) + riki (from Proto-Austronesian *dikit "small"

COGNATE WORDS IN SOME OTHER POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES
Tongan: Kalaka (Planchonella tahitensis^)
Niuean: Kalaka (P. tahitensis^)
Samoan: Ala'a (P. garberi, & Chariessa samoensis [Icacinaceae])
Hawaiian: 'āla'a (P. sandwicensis)
Tuamotuan: Karaka (P. tahitensis^)
Rarotongan: Karaka (P. tahitensis^ & Elaeocarpus rarotongensis [Elaeocarpaceae])

^ For more information about the botanical names accorded to these plants, see the page for *Kalaka. Some have formerly been placed in the genus Pouteria; P. tahitensis now covers P. grayana and some other specific names.

OTHER MĀORI NAMES
Tūrepo (this name seems to have originated in Aotearoa).

RELATED SAMOAN PLANT SPECIES
Mati, the Samoan generic name for three native species of the genus Ficus, Ficus scabra (mati vao), Ficus tinctoria, and Ficus uniauriculata (found natively only in Samoa). These belong to the same family as the Tūrepo, and likewise have a milky sap. There is also one Samoan species of the genus Streblus, for which no local name has been recorded. The word mati as a Polynesian plant name primarily relates to certain species of Ficus, but its range has been interestingly expanded by a process similar to that by which Streblus heterophyllus came to be associated with the tropical kalaka -- see notes below.

The Karakariki, Streblus heterophyllus.

This tree is more commonly known as the tūrepo or "milk tree". Its alternative name, however, incorporates the inherited element karaka, and literally means "little karaka". This is probably a direct reference to the "original" karaka, i.e. one of the trees of the genus Planchonella which are referred to by a reflex of Proto Oceanic *kalaka in many Oceanic languages.

The tūrepo is a tree with small, thick dark green leaves with conspicuous veins on the underside which show through to the upper surface; the veins are also visible on the upper surface, but otherwise the karakariki leaves are quite different from the large glossy green leaves of the Planchonella species and the New Zealand karaka, Corynocarpus laevigatus. However berries are like miniature versions of those of the other trees, and both the tropical karaka and the tūrepo have a milky latex in their sap. Because of this, it is very likely that the alternative name was given to Streblus heterophyllus in a direct reference to those parallels with the Pacific Island Planchonella species.

The tūrepo / karakariki is endemic to Aotearoa and grows to about 12 metres high, with a trunk up to 2 feet in diameter. It prefers moist areas on the margins of the forest and along streams and riverbanks from sea level to about 450 m throughout the North and South Islands. They grow best in very fertile, moist soils, but will tolerate drought and survive in less favourable environments. Young trees have tangled, interlacing branches; older trees are less tangled but have a dense, closely packed foliage. The creamy or reddish male and female flowers are carried on separate trees. The male flowers are densely packed on the small flower spikes, but the female flowers are fewer and more widely spread. They generally appear in late Winter and Spring. The small berries (about half a centimetre in diameter) are bright-red when ripe. The illustration on the right shows a ripe and ripening berries on a flower spike which has been atacked by the mite Eriophyes paratrophis, a tiny arthropod about a fifth of a millimetre long, too small to be seen by the naked eye. This creature infects cells of the flower spike causing the infected area to grow too rapidly and become a "witches broom", with very thin cell walls easily penetrated by the mite, enabling it to feed on the plant juices within.

When the trees are young, the leaves are often lobed or fiddle-shaped, but the older trees have oval leaves with lightly serrated edges, up to about 2.5 cm long; the leaves of juvenile trees are about half that size. The leaves of both juvenile and mature trees have very prominent veins on the underside. The juvenile form persists for many years; the photographs of the seedling and older tree from Te Māra Reo in the galleries on this page are of the same tree 14 years apart; the older tree has the more mature type of leaves, closer together than in the juvenile form, and while the branches are densely packed they are no longer interlaced. The tree has grown from about 40 centimetres to about 3 m high.

The early European settlers in New Zealand found that the sap of the karakariki was a patatable substitute for milk in tea, hence the English name "milk tree".

Another member of the family Moraceae: the Samoan Mati, Ficus tinctoria.

The three species of Streblus found in Aotearoa are the only indigenous representatives of the family Moraceae (the fig and mulberry family) here. The genus is also found in Samoa, as are three native species of Ficus, each of which has fruit reminiscent of the domestic fig, Ficus carica. The Samoan Ficus species are known collectively as mati, which is of special interest because it is one of the very few local plant names which appears in Samoan translations of the Bible. It is also the name by which Ficus tinctoria (the "dyers fig") is known in Rarotonga, with the derived form matimati denoting Streblus anthropophagorum, a close relation of the Tūrepo / Karakariki, with leaves and milky latex sap reminiscent of the mati fig, and possibly acquiring its name by the same process of association of salient features that resulted in the tūrepo being given the alternative name karakariki in Aotearoa. The root-word mati also denotes Ficus tinctoria in the Austral Isles, the Tuamotus, Futuna, and the Tokelaus, and Ficus scabra and Ficus godeffroyi in Niue, with the cognate term masi refering to the same species in Tonga. Most of these places lie within the natural distribution of Ficus tinctoria. Aotearoa is outside this range, but the word has been inherited in the form māti, referring to the fruit of the native fuchsia, Fuchsia excorticata. The Bible translators in most Polynesian languages chose either the Greek suke or adaptations of English fig to denote Ficus carica. Nonetheless the the translators into Niuean folowed the Samoan precedent and chose mati to represent the Biblical fig tree.