New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax)

Harakeke or New Zealand flax is a distinctive feature of the New Zealand landscape. Flax has played an important part of New Zealand’s history. One wonders how Maaori would have existed without the flax for it certainly played a big part in their life. In Maaori sayings and songs, flax is often likened to family bonds and human relationships. It is still an extremely useful plant that many New Zealanders associate strongly with their homeland.

Flax was so crucial for Māori, that when 19th-century missionary William Colenso told chiefs that it did not grow in England, they replied ‘How is it possible to live there without it? and ‘I would not dwell in such a land as that’. Harakeke (New Zealand Flax or is one of our country’s most recognised plants and has a rich and important history. It is used as food and medicine and its leaves & fibres for weaving clothing, ropes and cooking & collecting vessels.

Phormium tenax, also known as harakeke or swamp flax has long, tough fibrous leaves that grow in a flat fan shape. The lower part folds together with the inner surfaces fused and the leaf opens out above this into a flat blade. It has tall branches of red flowers with upright, curving seed pods with black, glossy, flat seeds and grows on lowland swamps throughout New Zealand. Phormium Tenax was named by Cook’s botanist – phormium being the Greek word for basket and tenax Latin for tough.

Maaori women used the leaf blades for weaving kete, baskets, mats and tukutuku work. Scraping the green flesh away with a sharp shell exposed strong fibre (muka) which was pounded until soft, then washed and sometimes dyed. It was then twisted, plaited and woven and used to create a wide range of items such as fishing nets, traps, footwear and strong cord and ropes. Woven with feathers and dog skin it produced warm clothing vital in our cooler climate. The buoyant leaf stalks, korari, were used for making rafts.

Early European explorers quickly saw the possible uses. Rope was in huge demand for many purposes including rigging on sailing ships, and in the 1820’s and 30’s Maaori bartered the fibre for European goods and muskets. Trading stations were set up in most coastal settlements around New Zealand. The fibre was exported to Sydney and then onto Britain at a good profit. Yellow leaf disease and a decline in trade caused by a lack of ‘scraping manpower’ due to the Maori Wars, resulted in the invention of mechanical flax strippers which were more efficient and produced a more consistent product in greater quantities. By 1870 there were over 160 flax mills nationwide. At the peak in the early 1900’s, flax fibre made up almost 5% of exports. But like all booms, there followed bust with fluctuating world market prices, competition from natural fibres from other countries and changes in technology, such as steam ships taking over from sailing ships and the reduced need for ropes.

The New Zealand flax industry was revived in the 1930s by the growth of manufacturing. Instead of exporting fibre it was processed for local use. Flax mills in the Manawatu region began to supply the Foxton factory of New Zealand Woolpack and Textiles Ltd, which made flax fibre into woolpacks for farmers. More factories opened, and other goods were made, including underfelt, floor coverings, and upholstery materials. Government subsidies and import restrictions on Indian Jute helped the industry survive another 50 years before succumbing to the removal of those subsidies and increased competition from synthetic fibres.

Historically Maori used different types of flax for different purposes and were early breeders of the different cultivars. They kept growing their preferred plants (cultivars) by taking ‘fans’ from the parent plant and there were plantations of different varieties of harakeke around the country.

In the late 1990’s a trial was carried out to see how the weaving qualities of the different cultivars (around 50) change when grown at a different locations. This trial was conducted by Landcare Research and the National Association of Maori Weavers. The different cultivars of harakeke were selected from natural stands and cultivated by Māori weavers for their special leaf and fibre properties. There are varieties specially suited to making kete, whāriki mats, piupiu and cloaks. Landcare Research (Manaaki Whenua) is kaitiaki (guardian) of a collection of these traditional weaving varieties of harakeke -(donated by Rene Orchiston of Gisborne) - ‘The New Zealand Flax Collection’ is maintained by Landcare Research. Early Maori made use of the flax for food and medicinal purposes too – the leaves, rhizome, roots, gum and seeds are all used medicinally – a sweet drink was made from the abundant nectar.

Crushing the roots produced a juice used as a disinfectant and also made poultices for skin infections. Boiling the roots resulted in a liquid which was drunk to ease constipation. They also healed wounds & burns and stopped bleeding using the orange gum from the base of the leaves. Blisters, sores and ringworm can also be healed using the gum. The reddish gum from a leaf cut at the base, mixed with water and taken internally can be used as a treatment for diarrhoea, dysentery and menstrual problems. The seeds were used medicinally by Maori but precise uses do not seem to have been recorded – the seed oil is high in linoleic acid – as essential fatty acid. A deficiency of linoleic acid can cause skin problems. The leaves were used for many purposes including being beaten to a pulp and applied hot to skin abscesses, the fibre used as a bandage to halt the flow of blood from a wound, the base of the leaf placed over wounds to stop bleeding, the umbilical cord of newborn babies was tied with flax leaves, and the juice is applied tonthe skin for rheumatism and sciatica. A drop of juice from the leaves was used in toothache, applied directly to the affected tooth.

In recent times there has been a trend towards using natural, sustainable products and there has been renewed interest in flax. The gum collected from the base of the leaves is being used as a soothing gel in skincare products and research is being carried out on the medicinal and nutritional properties of the plant. Taken internally flax is used by herbalist as a substitute for sarsaparilla. It is known as an antidote to the poison of the katipo spider and tutu berry. The leaves have been found to have the compounds cucurbitacins – which have antibacterial and anticancer properties. Also an antifungal compound, musizin has been isolated from the roots. The roasted seeds are used as a coffee substitute. The fibre can be used for making paper and the leaf pulp, after the fibre has been removed, can be fermented to make alcohol. The leaf gum can be used as a paper glue. A brown dye is obtained from the flowers – it does not require a mordant, a terracotta dye can be obtained from the seedpods and a mauve can also be obtained. The flowers are rich in tannin. Research also continues in developing the fibres into modern materials and of course much has been made of flax being planted along waterways as a way of mitigating the effects of waste runoff from farms while stabilising riverbanks.

With both the food and medicinal and fibre uses of the flax, there are variations onthese uses depending on the cultivar and location.