Makomako, Mako

Aristotelia serrata (Elaeocarpaceae)

ETYMOLOGY:
From Proto Oceanic *maRako Trichospermum richii (Malvaceae [formerly Tiliaceae]); through
Proto Polynesian: *Mako Trichospermum richii and other trees with similar appearance or characteristics.

COGNATE WORDS IN SOME OTHER POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES
Tongan: Mako (Melochia aristata, Malvaceae [ex Steruliaceae]).
Samoan: Ma'o (Melochia aristata, M. odorata, & Commersonia bartramia, Malvaceae [ex Steruliaceae] & Trichospermum richii (Malvaceae [ex Tiliaceae]).
Tahitian: Ma'o (Melochia aristata & Commersonia bartramia, Malvaceae [ex Steruliaceae])
Hawaiian: Ma'o (Abutilon incanum & Gossypium hirsutum, Malvaceae); Ma'o Hau Hele (Hibiscus brackenridgii, Malvaceae)

The mako or makomako is a graceful understory tree growing to about 10m high, found throughout New Zealand. It usually has a single trunk, which on mature trees can be about a foot in diameter. It is one of the first trees to reappear in regenerating forest, and can form dense patches in favourable locations. It is an endemic tree, found throughout Aotearoa, but prefering moister envoronments, including riverbanks.

The grey, corky bark is easily stripped away (but is not stringy like the houhere, which it superficially resembles). A bluish black dye can be obtained from an infusion of the bark. The leaves also have been used effectively for treating burns and abcesses. It tends to shed some of its leaves in winter, and in cold places is one of the few native trees to be fully deciduous. The serrated leaves are conspicuously veined on the undersides, which also often have a reddish blush.

The makomako is a dioeceous species (i.e. male and female flowers are borne on different trees). The small pink flowers are borne in panicles, the flowers about 5 mm in diameter, in panicles 6-10 cm long. The female trees produce bunches of dark, currant-sized berries which yield a luscious juice, which was much esteemed by Māori and new settlers alike; it's English alternative name, "wineberry", relates to one of the uses made of the juice by nineteenth century European settlers. They also had a use for the slender branches: John Dawson and Rob Lucas (Trees of NZ, p. 147) report that the settlers use to convert the shoots into charcoal for gunpowder. It does not seemed to have had much of a role as a tree crop since the Nineteenth Century, but an article in a recent issue of the Tree Crops Association's magazine may signal a possible renewal of interest from that perspective (Linda Stopforth, "Wineberries: The good, the bad and the indigenous," TreeCropper Issue 109, March 2022, pp. 9-10).

Although it belongs to a separate plant family, Aristotelia serrata does share some important characteristics with its tropical namesakes -- its role as a succession tree, leaf shape, and and easily removed bark, among others. It is not hard to imagine how it might have reminded the early Polynesian settlers of the group of trees they had left behind.