MAMAKU

Cyathea medullaris

Black tree fern

This is the largest tree fern of New Zealand. It is usually about twenty feet high, but can grow to fifty feet, with a spread of forty feet across the topmost fronds. Apart from its size, this fern is easily recognised by the black stems of the fronds and the unusual hexagonal scars on the trunk. It grows everywhere but in eastern Canterbury, and has both food and medicinal value. Also, the huge fronds make excellent shelter for people caught out at night in the bush.

The trunk and stems are edible. Short lengths of the trunk are placed on embers and baked for some hours; then peeled. The pith will have a sweet and wholesome taste. The stems of young fronds can be peeled and the pith sliced, steamed for a long time in a hangi and then threaded through a stick and dried in the sun. It is said to have the taste of dried apples. These were the Maori women’s ways of cooking mamaku.

To treat a wound the hairy skin of the inner curled frond is scraped off and the rather slimy tissue exposed. This is rubbed on the wound, or it can be scraped out and applied as a poultice, either raw or boiled. Bush men used it on their cuts and sores, as the Maoris taught them to. They found that it also cured saddle sores on horses when applied three times a day, and was effective for poisoned hands, swollen feet, and sore eyes (Adams). The young fronds were used for poulticing inflamed breasts (Dr. Bell).

The edible pith applied raw was found to be excellent for chafings (Cowan). The Maoris chewed the gum as a vermifuge, and for diarrhoea.