Watch this space! This is one of the pages written in the prototype stage of this web site, which has been transferred with minimal changes to the newer format. It is still therefore very much under construction, but contains the essential linguistic and botanical information, and both updated text and 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.
 The New Zealand naupata or taupata is also known as māmāngi (an inherited name which it shares with another coprosma, C. arborea), and angiangi (also a heritage name, shared with a widely-distributed lichen, Usnea barbata).
Coprosma repens is featured as "Plant of the Month" in the NZ Plant Conservation Network's newsletter, Trilepidea, for November 2009, which includes this amusing account of the meaning of the components of the botanical name:
The generic name Coprosma is an amalgam of two words: kopros, meaning dung and osme, meaning smell. The genus was so-named because of an unpleasant odour arising from the leaves of some species (such as C. foetidissima) when crushed. Taupata's specific name, repens, refers to creeping, so poor old taupata ended up with a name that translates as "creeping dung smell".
That description certainly does not accurately depict the nature of the taupata (although the plant will occasionally be found creeping), as the Trilepidea newsletter makes clear. Fortunately there is also a fact sheet on this species on the Network's web site; those two resources will also fill in the blanks on this page until it is completed.
 In Aotearoa, the name naupata and its common variant taupata are used only for Coprosma repens, an amazing shrub and tree. Like some of the Scaevola species which have cognate names in other parts of Eastern Polynesia (S. seriacea is illustrated on the left), it is a remarkably resilient plant, with an ability to adapt to a variety of situations - a small, stunted, often prostrate shrub or bizzarely contorted tree growing on or among rocks aparently devoid of soil in exposed coastal situations, or a tree six metres or more high with its dazzling bright-green foliage reflecting the sunlight in a protected situation with rich soil. It is often used as a hedge plant as it will stand an infinite amount of clipping and shaping, The taupata's orange-red berries are highly attractive to birds, and can also be eaten by people, although it seems that they were only occasionally part of the traditional Maori diet, at least for adults. The seeds, although small, can be roasted and provide a potable coffee substitute (the Coprosmas are members of the coffee family, Rubiaceae). Taupata coffee beans have an authentic aroma, although afficianados would be unlikely to prefer the taste of naupata coffee to that of the real thing,
The naupata was one of the Coprosmas associated with cleansing rituals to counteract or forestall spiritual or physical contamination or illness, although other species such as C. robusta and C. lucida were more commonly used for these purposes. The naupata, under its alternative name mämängi, does feature in one proverb: He pū māmāngi kī tahi, "A clump of taupata with a single word" -- that is, the berries are ripe in May, indicating definitively that summer and autumn have passed, and the cold season is here. [Meade & Grove, 662]
Coprosma repens -Naupata ~ Taupata
(Te Māra Reo)
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Coprosma repens - Naupata ~ Taupata
(Te Māra Reo) |
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