#1947 - Cyathea medullaris - Black Tree Fern
AKA Sphaeropteris medullaris, mamaku, katātā, kōrau, and pītau. Found across the south-west Pacific from Fiji to Pitcairn Island. Common in lowland forests of the North Island, and wetter coastal areas of the South Island.
These ones were growing around Lake Mangamahoe, and given how many of the plants growing there were actually from other parts of the world and left to go feral, it’s nice that @purrdence found one that was actually native.
The trunk is black, and up to 20m tall, and covered with distinctive hexagonal scars from old fronds. The fronds themselves may be up to 5 m long, and as many as 40,000 leaflets have been counted on a single frond.
The 1889 book The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that Indigenous Australians ate the starch-rich slimy pith of the fern. On the other side of the Tasman, the Māori cut it into slabs and baked it in hangi ovens.
