![NewZealandTuiOnFlax](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/NewZealandTuiOnFlax.jpg)
''Phormium tenax'' (called flax in
New Zealand English
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New or NEW may refer to:
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* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
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* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
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; in
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
; New Zealand flax
outside
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
; and New Zealand hemp
[ in historical nautical contexts) is an evergreen ]perennial
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...
plant native to New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...
that is an important fibre
Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...
plant and a popular ornamental plant.[Roger Holmes and Lance Walheim. 2005. ''California Home Landscaping'', Creative Homeowner Press ] The plant grows as a clump of long, straplike leaves, up to two metres long, from which arises a much taller flowering shoot, with dramatic yellow or red flowers.
The fibre has been widely used since the arrival of Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
to New Zealand, originally in Māori traditional textiles
Māori traditional textiles are the indigenous textiles of the Māori people of New Zealand. The organisation Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, the national Māori weavers' collective, aims to preserve and foster the skills of making and using ...
and also in rope and sail making after the arrival of Europeans until at least WWII. It is an invasive species in some of the Pacific Islands and in Australia.
The blades of the plant contain cucurbitacin
Cucurbitacin is a class of biochemical compounds that some plants – notably members of the pumpkin and gourd family, Cucurbitaceae – produce and which function as a defence against herbivores. Cucurbitacins are chemically classified as trit ...
s, which are poisonous to some animals, and some of them are among the bitterest tastes to humans.
Etymology
The ''hara'' in the Māori name ''harakeke'' is a remnant of the Austronesian root ''*paŋudaN'' (via Proto-Oceanic
Proto-Oceanic (abbr. ''POc'') is a proto-language that historical linguists since Otto Dempwolff have reconstructed as the hypothetical common ancestor of the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Oceanic is a descendant ...
''*padran'') surviving in related languages referring to pandanus
''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with some 750 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. The greatest number of species are found in Madagascar and Malaysia. Common names ...
plants with similar characteristics of sheathing leaves also used for weaving (like ''Pandanus tectorius
''Pandanus tectorius'' is a species of ''Pandanus'' (screwpine) that is native to Malesia, Papuasia, eastern Australia, and the Pacific Islands. It grows in the coastal lowlands typically near the edge of the ocean. Common names in English inclu ...
'', also known as ''hala'' in Hawaiian), as New Zealand was one of the only places where pandanus was not available.
Ecology
The jumping spider
Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), family Salticidae. As of 2019, this family contained over 600 described genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders at 13% of all sp ...
''Trite planiceps
''Trite planiceps'', commonly known as the black-headed jumping spider, is a common jumping spider (Salticidae) endemic to New Zealand and one of about 150 species of jumping spiders in New Zealand.
Taxonomy
''Trite planiceps'' was first des ...
'' lives predominantly in the rolled-up leaves of this species. ''Phormium tenax'' is a coastal cover plant associated with significant habitat such as the breeding habitat for the endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...
yellow-eyed penguin
The yellow-eyed penguin (''Megadyptes antipodes''), known also as hoiho or tarakaka, is a species of penguin endemic to New Zealand.
Previously thought closely related to the little penguin (''Eudyptula minor''), molecular research has shown it ...
.
Māori traditional uses
Harakeke was one of the most commonly used fibres for weaving in prior to European contact in New Zealand, due to its wide availability and long strands. Harakeke can be woven raw to create open-weave items (where the ''para'' or the waterproof epidermis
The epidermis is the outermost of the three layers that comprise the skin, the inner layers being the dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis layer provides a barrier to infection from environmental pathogens and regulates the amount of water rele ...
of the plant is kept intact), or processed so only the muka
Muka is prepared fibre of Phormium_tenax, New Zealand flax ( mi, links=yes, harakeke). Prepared primarily by scraping, pounding and washing, it is a key material in Māori traditional textiles where it is usually used in tāniko or twined weaving. ...
remains, for close-weave objects. The broad length of harakeke leaves allow weavers to create a variety of strip lengths, making the plant suitable for a range of objects and sizes.
Harakeke can be boiled with hot stones to bleach strips, however dying the fibre is difficult due to the water resistant ''para''. However, harakeke can by dyed using ''paru'', or an iron-rich mud. Harakeke can be made more flexible with less shrinkage using the ''hapine'' technique, where a knife or shell is run across the fibre to remove moisture without breaking the surface layers.
Cultivation
''Phormium tenax'' had many uses in traditional Māori society. It was the main material used for weaving, adopted after aute (paper mulberry
The paper mulberry (''Broussonetia papyrifera'', syn. ''Morus papyrifera'' L.) is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae. It is native to Asia,[Polynesia
Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...]
, did not thrive in New Zealand'
"Scientific Plant Breeding"
climate. Many of the traditional uses have largely fallen into disuse, though there is an upswing in the use of traditional materials in modern Māori art and craft. The two most common forms for flax in traditional craft are the use of stripped, dried leaves as broad bands, such as in the weaving of ''kete
KETE (99.7 FM; "Three Angels Broadcasting Network") is a terrestrial radio station, licensed to Sulphur Bluff, Texas, United States, and owned by Brazos TV, Inc.
KETE broadcasts a Christian preaching format, featuring programming from the Thre ...
'' (flax baskets), and the scraping, pounding, and washing of the leaves to create a fibre — ''muka
Muka is prepared fibre of Phormium_tenax, New Zealand flax ( mi, links=yes, harakeke). Prepared primarily by scraping, pounding and washing, it is a key material in Māori traditional textiles where it is usually used in tāniko or twined weaving. ...
'' — which is used in ''tāniko
Tāniko (or taaniko) is a traditional weaving technique of the Māori of New Zealand related to "twining". It may also refer to the resulting bands of weaving, or to the traditional designs.
The tāniko technique does not require a loom, altho ...
'' (weaving) of soft, durable fabric for clothing. Flax is also used as a decorative and structural element in ''tukutuku
Tukutuku panelling is a distinctive art form of the Māori people of New Zealand, a traditional latticework used to decorate meeting houses (wharenui). Other names are tuitui and arapaki. Tukutuku flank the posts around the edge of the wharenui ...
'', panelling found within Mãori ''wharenui
A wharenui (; literally "large house") is a communal house of the Māori people of New Zealand, generally situated as the focal point of a ''marae''. Wharenui are usually called meeting houses in New Zealand English, or simply called ''whare'' ( ...
'' (meeting houses).
Prior to the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
of the 1930s, which decimated flax as an industry, there were two serious attempts by Europeans to breed for fibre. The first was by Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
-based Leonard Cockayne
Leonard Cockayne (7 April 1855 – 8 July 1934) is regarded as New Zealand's greatest botanist and a founder of modern science in New Zealand.
Biography
He was born in Sheffield, England where he attended Wesley College. He travelled to Austra ...
about 1908. The second by Massey
Massey may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Massey, Ontario
* Massey Island, Nunavut
New Zealand
* Massey, New Zealand, an Auckland suburb
United States
* Massey, Alabama
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* Massey (surname)
Educati ...
-based John Stuart Yeates
John Stuart Yeates (11 July 1900 – 24 August 1986) was a New Zealand academic and botanist. The founding head of Agricultural Botany at Massey Agricultural College, he was also an accomplished breeder of azaleas, rhododendrons and lilies.
Ea ...
in the late 1920s.
New Zealand Flax was cultivated on Saint Helena
Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...
from the late 1800s to around 1966 for the production of string and rope and for export. Today the plants remain but the industry has stopped; they are considered an ecological problem.
Ornamental
In recent times, ''P. tenax'' and its cousin '' P. colensoi'' have been widely cultivated as ornamental garden plants, their striking fans of pointed leaves providing a focal point in mixed plantings or at the edge of a lawn. They are easy to grow in a sunny spot, especially in coastal areas with some protection in winter, but require reliably moist soil. They are frequently found in garden centres amongst plants with a similar appearance, notably ''Yucca
''Yucca'' is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40–50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flo ...
'' and ''Cordyline
''Cordyline'' is a genus of about 15 species of woody monocotyledonous flowering plants in family Asparagaceae, subfamily Lomandroideae. The subfamily has previously been treated as a separate family Laxmanniaceae, or Lomandraceae. Other authors ...
''. However, these are very different plants with different requirements. ''P. tenax'' and some cultivars can grow to a substantial size - tall by broad.
Cultivars
More recently several cultivars
A cultivar is a type of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and when Plant propagation, propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and st ...
have been selected as decorative garden plants, including:
*'Bronze Baby' - arching bronze leaves, plant.
*'Dazzler' - arching leaves that are bronze-maroon with red and pink stripes, plant reaches 3 feet in height
*'Duet'
*Purpureum Group
*'Sundowner' - plant, leaves are striped with bronze, green and rose-pink
*'Variegatum'
*'Yellow Wave'
Those marked have gained the Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...
's Award of Garden Merit
The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions.
History
The Award of Garden Merit ...
.
See also
* ''Phormium
''Phormium'' is a genus of two plant species in the family Asphodelaceae. One species is endemic to New Zealand and the other is native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. The two species are widely known in New Zealand as flax or their Māori n ...
'', covering both species
* Flax in New Zealand
New Zealand flax describes the common New Zealand perennial plants ''Phormium tenax'' and ''Phormium colensoi'', known by the Māori names ''harakeke'' and ''wharariki'' respectively. Although given the common name 'flax' they are quite distinc ...
References
Further reading
* James Hector. 1889. ''Phormium tenax as a fibrous plant'', second edition, New Zealand. Geological Survey Dept, New Zealand, published by G. Didsbury, Government Printer, 95 pages
External links
Harakeke image gallery from Landcare Research - Manaaki Whenua
{{Taxonbar, from=Q607380
Crops originating from New Zealand
Fiber plants
Flora of the Auckland Islands
Garden plants of New Zealand
Hemerocallidoideae
Medicinal plants
Perennial plants
Plants used in traditional Māori medicine