HE AITAKA A TĀNE Nā ROB TIPA
Pānako
A family of sacred, edible ferns
Māori names: Pānako (also parenako, paretao and paretau) Common names: Shore spleenwort, parsley fern, fine-leaved parsley fern Botanical names: Asplenium obtusatum, Botrychium australe, Botrychium biforme
46
TE KARAKA KANA 2016
Pānako was the name given to three different species of edible ferns, a number of which were known to be part of the Māori diet. The part of the plant generally eaten was the young curled fronds. Shore spleenwort is a coastal fern with thick, fleshy fronds that thrives on exposed headlands and cliffs throughout New Zealand, and on several sub-Antarctic islands. In Māori Healing and Herbal, Murdoch Riley writes that pānako is one of several sacred Asplenium species that held great spiritual significance for Māori, featuring in psychic healing and divination ceremonies. It was used ceremonially by tohunga to diagnose health issues of patients, or to predict the outcome of any tribal enterprises or battles. In Māori tradition, anyone felling a tōtara tree in the forest to build a waka was expected to cover the tree stump with these ferns, to placate Tāne at the loss of one of his forest children. Riley records cases where the juice of the bruised roots of these