Introduction
The Houpara, Pseudopanax lessonii
The Whauwhaupaku, Pseudopanax arboreus
The wood of the Parapara
Gallery
The names by which these trees are known are quite a puzzle when it comes to relating them to their possible origins in ancient Polynesia. They do seem to be derived wholly or in part from the Proto Polynesian names for the beach hibiscus, *fau, and a species of fern, *pala, both of which are represented in the New Zealand flora by other plants whose similarity to their Polynesian counterparts is easily discerned. It is much harder, however, to see how Pseudopanax arboreus and P. lessonii fit into this picture, and yet there must have been something about these trees that inspired an early NZ Polynesian taxonomist to confer one or other, or perhaps both, of these names on each of them. We can speculate on the reasons for this, but first let us look at some general background information, and then consider the characteristics of the plants themselves.
Pseudopanax is a genus endemic to Aotearoa, in an older grouping within the same subfamily (Aralioideae) as the Hawaiian Cheirodendron, but the genus Raukaua is the closest to Cheirodendron, and rather less closely related to other New Zealand species of Pseudopanax. (Raukaua is comprised of the former Pseudopanax simplex, P. edgerleyi and P. anomalus.) Pseudopanax lessonii is a member of a group of three species (with P. gilliesii and P discolor) coordinate with a group of four species including P. crassifolius (the horoeka) and P. ferox; the others clustered around P arboreus are quite closely related to the genus Meryta, represented in Aotearoa by the puka, Meryta sinclairii. (For more information about these relationships, see the papers by Anthony Mitchell and associates, 1997, 2012, and Leon Perrie and Lara Shepherd, 2009).
New Zealand had split from Australia about 70 million years ago, but Australia was still joined to Antarctica and the extreme south of South America at the time. The ancestors of Pseudopanax were present before then, but the genus evolved much later. Pseudopanax crassifolius and P. ferox may have been particularly affected by the need to protect themselves from moas, but Gemmill et al. (2022) note that they occupy quite different ecological niches is and have a different geographical distribution. There is a very good discussion of the possible reasons for the remarkable variations of leaf form within various species of Pseudopanax, both within species at different stages of growth and between species, in Kevin Gould’s paper “Leaf heteroblasty in Pseudopanax crassifolius” (1993).
The Latin generic name means “fake panax, i.e. false cure-all”. Panax was the name given by the Swedish botanist Carl Linneus to a genus of Araliads famous for their curative properties – they include the ginseng, with its sought-after root. Leaves of some of these species are very similar to those of the Pseudopanax group, which belong to the same family. Pseudopanax lessonii was named after the French botanist P. A. Lesson, a member of Dumont D’Urvelle’s expedition, who collected specimens during a visit to the Bay of Islands in 1824.
The Houpara, Pseudopanax lessonii
 Pseudopanax lessonii is also known as the “shore panax”, and is one of the typical trees of coastal forests from North Cape to Tolaga Bay on the east, and as far as Kawhia in the south. It grows 5 to 6 m high, with several slim trunks arising from the base. The shrub has stout branches and the leaves are clustered at the tip of the branchlets. The leaves are produced on long stems (up to 12 so centimetres or more), with shiny dark green leaflets, each up to 12 cm long by 5 cm wide, diminishing in size from the centre to the sides of each cluster, and without individual stalks. There are a few teeth on the upper part of the leaf margins and conspicuous main veins. As the leaves unfold, they are protected by a clear gum to protect them from drying out. This similarity to the bird-catching parapara may have earned the tree that name. The leaves may develop a bronze tint in cold weather.
The umbels of green flowers appear in summer, and are followed in autumn and winter by dark purple oblong fruits about 7 by 5 mm, each with five seeds.
This species frequently hybridises with Pseudopanax crassifolius, making the identification of the parentage of some plants problematic.
The Whauwhaupaku, Pseudopanax arboreus
 Pseudopanax arboreus is a larger tree, up to 8 m tall with spreading, rather brittle branches. It has abundant clusters of 5 to 7 leaflets on stalks up to 20 cm long, with sheathing branchlets at the base; the individual leaflets are also on stalks up to about 5 cm long. In crowded siruations the branches may develop vine-like contortions, like those in the photo on the left. (The bird is a pīwakawaka, the North Island fantail, Rhipidura fuliginosa placabilis).
The tree has separate male and female flowers produced in expansive umbels at the ends of is branches.The flowers are sweet scented and about 5 mm in diameter with white to pink petals. The female flowers produce deep purple plump fruits, with compressed sides, looking like small bunches of grapes. Each fruit has two or three seeds.
Pseudopanax arboreus is common throughout New Zealand in coastal and lowland forests. It flourishes along stream sides and in forest margins. It is often epiphytic on the trunks of tree ferns, especially the ponga, when seeds have been dropped into the cracks on their trunks. The roots reaching the ground will support it if the ponga dies, leaving a very tall tree in its place.
The wood of the Parapara
Muriel Fisher (Gardening with New Zealand Plants, Shrubs and Trees, page 104) mentions the use of the wood of Pseudopanax lessonii for canoe rollers in Waikaremoana. She quotes the English translation of a Waikaremoana canoe-hauling song from James Cowan's The Maoris of New Zealand (1910, reprinted 2000) which mentions this tree: Ay, drag up this canoe
To the mountain top
Above us there.
Lay down beneath its keel
The skids of parapara
Let them be to it
As a darting figurehead
As a scrolled and carven stern.
The wood is said to be both slippery and durable. Alan Clarke (The Great Sacred Forest of Tane, page 250) notes that for hauling a roughed-out hull from the forest, “great ropes of flax, levers and skids made from the houhou (puahou, whauwhaupaku, Pseudopanax arboreus, five finger)” were used. Both writers are referring to the “parapara” of the chant, and it is possible that both species of Pseudopanax bearing this name were used as canoe rollers. However, since Waikaremoana is inland, and a little south of the natural range of Pseudopanax lessonii, it is possible that the P. arboreus was actually the tree used there, too..
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