Coprosma lucida. Karamū.
Māori names
Māori names
Common names
Food
Berries eaten (Taylor 1870; Colenso 1868a, 1868b, 1880).
Karamū leaves used as a substitute for china tea (Armstrong, in Aston 1923a).
Leaves sometimes put on the stones in a hangi before the small kūmara to colour and preserve them. Out of this "kao" is made and dried in the sun (P. Smith 1940).
Leaves used to line hangi along with kawakawa and korokio gave an appreciated flavour to karaka kernels (Best 1942).
Dyes
Coprosma species as a source of dyes in Aston 1918a, 1918d.
"Curious old-gold colour" made from bark (Hamilton 1899).
Medicinal
Inner bark boiled, liquid used for stomache ache and to stop vomiting. Young shoots boiled, liquid drunk, for bladder stoppage or inflammation (Poverty Bay Federation of Women"s Institutes Cookery Calendar; mid 1930s?)
Leaves boiled, drunk for kidney troubles by North Auckland Māori (Adams 1945)
Related pharmacology in Brooker, Cambie and Cooper 1987. (Brooker et al state that a decoction of the leaves was taken as a febrifuge. Colenso 1844 is given as a reference but I was unable to find this use recorded - Ed.)
Chemistry
Leaves, bark, heartwood compounds listed in Cambie 1976, with references.
Traditions
Branches used in ceremonies (Best 1907, 1942).
Leaves used during baptism ceremony (Taylor 1855; Servant 1973)
Notes
"... known to Otago natives as "Kalamou" (Hector)" Lindsay 1868. [Reflects dialect. Ed. ]
