Rengarenga facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Rengarenga |
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Anthericum cirratum G.Forst. |
Arthropodium cirratum is a special plant from New Zealand. It's known by many names like rengarenga, renga lily, New Zealand rock lily, or maikaika. This plant is a perennial, meaning it lives for more than two years. It's also a herbaceous plant, which means it has soft stems instead of woody ones.
Rengarenga is found only in New Zealand. Long ago, people there might have even grown it on farms. The Māori people used this plant for both food and medicine. It also has a special meaning in their traditions.
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What Rengarenga Looks Like
The leaves of the rengarenga plant are quite long. They can be about 30 to 60 centimeters (12 to 24 inches) in length. They are also fairly wide, measuring 3 to 10 centimeters (1 to 4 inches) across.
The plant grows a tall flower stalk that can reach up to one meter (about 3 feet) high. This stalk holds many beautiful white flowers. Each flower has six petals and is about 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) wide. The flowers usually grow in small groups of two or three.
If you look closely at the flowers, you'll see their stamens are very colorful. They are purple and white, with a bright yellow tip that curls. The roots of the rengarenga plant are thick, usually 2 to 3 centimeters (0.8 to 1.2 inches) wide.
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How Rengarenga Got Its Name
The rengarenga plant was first described in 1786. A scientist named Georg Forster gave it the name Anthericum cirrhatum.
Later, in 1822, another botanist named Robert Brown decided it belonged to a different group of plants. He placed it in the Arthropodium genus. This is how it got its current scientific name, Arthropodium cirratum.
Where Rengarenga Grows
You can find rengarenga growing naturally in New Zealand. It is mostly found north of Greymouth and Kaikoura. As its name "New Zealand rock lily" suggests, it often grows on rocks near the sea.
Growing and Using Rengarenga
People often grow rengarenga as an ornamental plant in gardens. This means it's grown because it looks pretty.
The rhizomes, which are like underground stems, of the plant can be eaten. They are best when cooked. You can find these edible rhizomes all year round.
The Māori traditionally ate the rhizomes after cooking them in a hāngi. A hāngi is a traditional Māori method of cooking food using heated rocks in an underground pit.
A person named William Colenso thought that the Māori might have grown this plant on purpose. He had two reasons for this idea. First, he noticed that the plant grew much bigger when it was cultivated than when it grew wild. Second, he often found rengarenga plants near old, empty Māori homes and gardens. However, he also noted that rengarenga was not the most important wild plant food for the Māori. He listed it as fourteenth out of eighteen different kinds of wild vegetable foods they used.
See also
In Spanish: Arthropodium cirrhatum para niños
