What it is used for: Description: KAWAKAWA Kawakawa has long been used as a An aromatic shrub or small tree which grows traditional medicinal plant by Māori to treat Fact file to 6 metres tall. The purple-black branches many skin complaints including eczema, are zigzagged. The dark green leaves are bruises, and boils. Botanical name: heart shaped and the leaves may look like Piper excelsum they have holes eaten in them (they actually It was also used to treat bladder problems have been eaten by the caterpillars of Cleora and toothache. Infusions were made by scriptaria, the kawakawa looper moth) but boiling the leaves or roots in water. Early Other names: this means that they are good leaves. The explorers, hunters and miners put the Kawa, taakawa, Māori bush basil, pepper flowers stand upright like birthday candles on green branches on campfires to keep away tree. a cake and flower all year. the mosquitoes and sand flies. Kawakawa leaves are sometimes waved at The word kawa means bitter in Māori a pōwhiri (welcome ceremony) to welcome because of the taste of the leaves. manuhiri (visitors) and wreaths of kawakawa leaves are often worn at a tangi (funeral). Related to: Kawakawa belongs to the plant family Piperaceae – the pepper family. This How to eat it: includes Piper nigrum, the plant where The leaves and berries are all edible and peppercorns come from, and Piper were used by the early settlers in various methysticum, known as kava or kava-kava ways – to make tea, beer, or eaten as fruit. across the Pacific. The orange fruit from female trees are Where it grows: sweet and the seeds are peppery. To get Kawakawa is native to New Zealand. Found in the core out, pinch the top of the berry and coastal and lowland forests throughout the it will slide out easily. North Island and in the South Island as far Kawakawa can also be used as a herb in south as Banks Peninsula and Okarito. cooking eg. in ‘Indigenous herbed butter’. You can make your own kawakawa tea. Pick 2 or 3 leaves and pour over boiling water. Leave it to infuse for a 2 minutes before drinking. Add lemon and ginger or sweeten if you want, or try it iced in the summer. .