Observations of a Naturalist in the Pacific Between 1896 and 1899, Volume 2 / Plant-Dispersal

by H. B. Guppy

The Food-Plants of the Polynesians and Pre-Polynesians

One can imperfectly distinguish two sets of food-plants in this region; the first comprising such plants as Pachyrrhizus trilobus, Tacca pinnatifida, Amorphophallus campanulatus, the Mountain Bananas, the Wild Yams, and several others that grow wild, and, as a rule, only serve as food in times of scarcity; the second including the plants that are extensively cultivated by the present islanders, such as the Breadfruit, the Banana (Musa paradisiaca), the Taro (Colocasia antiquorum) and the two Yams (Dioscorea alata and D. sativa), &c. Those of the first set probably formed the food of the earliest inhabitants of the Pacific Islands, pre-Polynesian peoples that practised only a rude sort of cultivation, as with the present “bush-men” of the islands of the Western Pacific. Those of the second set belong to the later occupants of these islands, the Polynesians.

(a) The Pre-Polynesian food-plants.—In addition to those above named one may mention Cycas circinalis, Cyrtosperma edulis, Lablab vulgaris, Pandanus odoratissimus, Saccharum officinarum, Sagus vitiensis, &c. Inocarpus edulis is probably to be here included, and amongst the Wild Yams should be named Dioscorea nummularia and D. pentaphylla. Some of them are now occasionally cultivated; but most of them only occur in the wild condition, either as weeds or as larger plants growing spontaneously in uncultivated localities. Even the knowledge of them as food-plants has sometimes been altogether lost, the present inhabitants of the Fijis, for instance, knowing nothing of Lablab vulgaris and Sagus vitiensis as sources of food. The question of the antiquity of the Coco-nut Palm in Polynesia was discussed at length by Seemann; but for various reasons we cannot be absolutely certain whether or not it is an older denizen of the Pacific islands than the Polynesian. It is, however, to be inferred that it came originally from the home of the genus in America, perhaps as a gift brought by the Equatorial Current from the New World to Asia. Several chapters might be devoted to the discussion of the earlier food-plants of these islanders; but here only a brief reference can be made to a few of them.

Perhaps the oldest of the earliest aboriginal food-plants are those that, like Cyrtosperma edulis and Sagus vitiensis, are apparently confined to Fiji. Here we seem to possess indications of the development of new species since that group was first occupied by man. Others, like Pachyrrhizus trilobus and Cycas circinalis, that are restricted to the groups of the Western Pacific may come next in relative antiquity.

Although most of the early food-plants hail from the Old World, the home of Pachyrrhizus is in America. One may indeed wonder how a plant with such a history ever reached the Western Pacific. It seems to be generally distributed in this part of the ocean, having been recorded from New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. Although its edible roots are only used in times of scarcity, the plant grows wild all over Fiji, being especially frequent in the “talasinga” plains. Though I searched diligently, it never presented me with its seed. In Tonga, according to Graeffe (as quoted by Reinecke) the plant is much employed in preparing the land for yam-cultivation, since it restrains the growth of weeds and keeps the soil moist.

Amongst the food-plants of this early period that are distributed over the South Pacific as far east as Tahiti may be mentioned the Wild Yams (D. nummularia and D. pentaphylla), the Mountain Bananas, Tacca pinnatifida, Amorphophallus campanulatus, and others. Of these Tacca pinnatifida and Dioscorea pentaphylla are alone found in Hawaii. I will only now refer to the Mountain Bananas.

The Mountain Bananas of the tropical South Pacific, distinguished by their erect fruit bunches and their seeded fruits, present us with one of the mysteries connected with aboriginal man in this ocean. Whether in New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, Rarotonga, or in Tahiti, they grow wild in the interior, and form often a conspicuous feature of the vegetation in the mountains and at the heads of the valleys. They are occasionally cultivated. Their Fijian and Samoan names of “Soanga” and “Soa’a” reproduce the names of the banana, “Saguing” and “Saing” in the Tagalog language of the Philippine Islands. The Tahitian appellation is “Fehi” or “Fei,” and this reappears in Samoa in the form of “Fa’i,” the word for the common cultivated banana, Musa paradisiaca. The Rarotongan name of “Uatu,” as given by Cheeseman, is suggestive of the Micronesian form (Ut, Uut, &c., in the Carolines) of a widely spread banana word in Malaya, Melanesia, and West Polynesia (Fudi, Vundi, Undi, &c., &c.). It is not unlikely that all these South Pacific mountain bananas with erect inflorescences and seeded fruits belong to one species, variously designated by botanists as Musa fehi, M. uranoscopus, M. troglodytarum, &c., and confined to this region. Under the name of Musa fehi Schumann includes the New Caledonian and Tahitian plants, and he views the Samoan plant as probably identical with them. This botanist, in his monograph on the Musaceæ (Engler’s Das Pflanzenreich, 1900), establishes the home of the bananas in tropical Asia, and considers that their occurrence in America before the time of Columbus has not been proved. Birds have no doubt often assisted in the dispersal of the wild, seeded plants; but it is likely that man is responsible for the occurrence of the mountain forms in the Pacific, and probably their fruits formed when cooked one of the principal articles of diet of the earliest immigrants. (There evidently exists in Vanua Levu a plant very like the African Musa Ensete. Its presence was only indicated by the occurrence of its empty seeds in the stranded beach-drift, and reference is made to it in that connection in [Chapter XXIX.])

(b) The Polynesian food-plants.—The cultivation of the yams, the taros, the breadfruits, and the bananas in later ages all over the Pacific islands cannot here be dealt with. My readers will already know that a very ancient cultivation is in each case indicated by the occurrence of a great number of varieties. Much has been written upon this matter, and amongst the recent contributions to the subject may be reckoned Mr. Cheeseman’s interesting paper published in the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute (vol. xxxiii).

I may here mention in connection with the Sweet Potato (Batatas edulis), a plant that may have an American origin, though much mystery surrounds its home, that it rarely seeds in Fiji except when it is grown in poor, sandy soil, and in dry, rocky situations. The Fijians were quite incredulous as to its maturing seed; but after much searching I found a solitary plant in seed and removed their doubts.