FAMILY: Rosaceae Rose family

BOTANICAL NAME: Geum urbanum

MĀORI NAME: kōpata, kōwhai (Best 1908), kōhai, kōwhai kura (Taylor 1855; PlantsDetails.Williams 1971)

COMMON NAME: common avens; herb-bennett

MEDICINAL: Leaf is astringent, used for diarrhoea and dysentery. Taken for foul breath (Goldie 1905).

Related pharmacology in Brooker, Cambie and Cooper 1987. A widespread species, used as herbal medicine in other parts of the world. See Riley 1994.

DOMESTIC: After Europeans introduced smoking, Māori would smoke a weed called kōpata. They would make a bowl for a pipe out of wood and insert as a stem a reed of pukakaho. (Maori informant in Beattie 1920). See also Pelargonium inodorum.

CHEMISTRY: Notes on chemistry in Brooker, Cambie and Cooper 1987. Plant rich in tannins. Essential oil contains eugenol, a dental analgesic.

SCENT: Geum urbanum and Potentilla anserina, plants used for scenting oil. (PlantsDetails.Williams 1971)