Tutu

Coriaria arborea found only in New Zealand

Six New Zealand native species are all known by the name: Tutu. They are Coriaria angustissima, Coriaria arborea, Coriaria lurida, Coriaria plumosa, Coriaria pteridoides, and Coriaria sarmentosa

Tutu the most poisonous plant in our bush

Tutu carries the dubious distinction of being this country’s most toxic plant, historically responsible for many deaths of adults and inquisitive children, perhaps attracted by its shiny black berries. Occasionally people have been poisoned by honey made from the honeydew exuded by a sap-sucking vine hopper that feeds on the tutu plant.
Tutu has been responsible for the greatest percentage of stock poisoning by plants in New Zealand. Sheep and cattle are mostly affected. On the west coast a circus stopped in the side if the road and an elephant ate Tutu and died

Around 1900, New Zealand chemists identified tutin as the poison. This occurs in all parts of the plant except the fleshy petals Tutin acts on the central nervous system, causing convulsions and breathing problems that may lead to death

Tutu around the lodge.

There are a number of Tutu trees or plants by the lodge, several grow on the bank of the road between the bus bay clearing and the culvert at the bottom of the hill.

It is a straggling plant, much branched from the base and with four-angled branches. The leaves are opposite and on slender stems, the whole looking like a pinnate leaf. Each leaf is 3-7cm. long, about broad-ovate and acute.
The small flowers are arranged in drooping racemes, 15cm or more in length. The petals, later juicy and purplish-black, embrace the fruit. The poisonous principle is a toxin tutin, which occurs in all parts of the plant except the fleshy petals.
Tutu is found throughout New Zealand, particularly along stream banks and in regenerating native bush.

Its flowers hang on stems up to 30cm long like strings of black currants, from September through to February. Its shiny black fruits ripen from November through to April.

Tutu has varies in appearance and it may become an evergreen tree growing to 6 metres in height

Tutu is found throughout New Zealand, particularly along stream banks and in regenerating native bush.

Significance to Maori

Maori were very aware of how poisonous tutu is and yet a numerous uses for it despite its ruthless reputation for any error in preparation
(From TeKaraka)

If a person occidentally swallowed tutu seeds, the poison distorted their face and cramped their jaw. A stick or rag was placed between their teeth to prevent them biting their tongue until they started frothing at the mouth and vomited up the seeds.

An old Māori remedy involved hanging the victim upside down over a smoky fire to induce vomiting, sometimes with the help of some vile brew like the water of boiled pūhā to hasten the act.

The victim may have been forced to take a steam bath or a compulsory run to make them sweat out the poison. There are also reports of tutu victims being held in cold water long enough to stop their blood circulation, or buried in sand to stop the convulsions – a treatment also used for karaka poisoning. No doubt anyone who survived such rough treatment would be grateful to get away with their lives.

And yet reference books are full of detailed descriptions of tutu’s uses by Māori as a refreshing drink, jelly and sweetener of foods. It was also used in various recipes for treating illnesses and injuries, and as an indelible ink used in tattooing.

However, preparation of these recipes was often tricky, so the plant was naturally treated with considerable caution by both Māori and Pākehā.

Tutu juice, known as wai pūhou, was a refreshing drink made from the dark purple juice extracted from the fleshy petals. This juice was used to sweeten various foods such as aruhe (bracken fern root), but it had to be scrupulously strained and filtered through toetoe or raupō flower heads to ensure that none of the poisonous seeds slipped through.

Visitors to a kaika could tell by the colour and taste of the juice whether it had been freshly prepared. It was an insult to offer wai pūhou that had stood too long, as the taste was sharp or sour, and the brew had an intoxicating effect.

Tutu juice could also be boiled with a type of seaweed known as rehia to produce a jelly that was eaten cold.

European missionaries and settlers made their own fermented wine from tutu berries, which was apparently similar to elderberry wine or a light claret. By all accounts, it was “very palatable and particularly potent.” This was presumably a reference to its alcoholic properties, rather than its potency as a poison.

History records plenty of instances where people have died or suffered serious illness when they have not been meticulous in their preparations of tutu juice, beer or wine; particularly to remove the highly poisonous seeds from the liquid.

Juice of the tutu plant stains the skin brown, so in early times young warriors who had not yet been tattooed used this plant to mark their faces before battle.

The strained juice though was valued and used for medicinal purposes, to flavour bland foods, and to brew a sweet wine

Māori used the soot from burning tutu wood mixed with oils from weka, shark or tree oils to manufacture an indelible ink for tattooing, and also extracted a red or black dye from the bark. Early European settlers developed their own recipe for ink by mixing tutu juice with gunpowder.

The juice extracted from tutu flower petals was used as a laxative.

Various preparations of tutu leaves and shoots were used to dress wounds and bruises, set broken bones or sprained ankles and to make an antiseptic lotion to treat cuts and sores.

Ma-uru was a patent medicine made from the tutu root that was strongly recommended by some early Europeans to treat neuralgia, headaches, chilblains, rheumatism and eye strain.

For the musically inclined, the kōauau (flute) with three holes and the pōrutu,a large flute, more like a European flute, with four to six holes, were both made from tutu rākau, a larger species of tutu that grew into a tree.

Considering its ruthless reputation for any error in preparation, it’s a wonder our tupuna risked their lives to find so many uses for this taonga plant.