Ngā rau o te rākau ❘ Tree leaves
He aha te take o ngā rau o te rākau?
Ko te take matua o ngā rau ko te ahotakakame.
Mā te ahotakakame te tupu e mahi kai māna anō.
Ko tā ngā rau o te rākau, he miti i te hauhā o te hau takiwā me te pūngao aho o Tama-nui-te rā.
Ka kōmitimiti ngēnei huānga me te wai hei whakaputa i te kūhuka me te te hāora.
Te ahotakakame – he tiro whānui
Ka whakaahuatia nei te kahikatea hei tauira.
What is the purpose of leaves?
Photosynthesis is the main purpose of leaves.
Plants use photosynthesis to make their own food.
Plant leaves absorb carbon dioxide from the air and light energy from the Sun.
They combine these with water to produce glucose and oxygen.
Ngā poare
Mā te poare te hauhā e urururu ki te rau, ā, te hāora e puta i te rau.
Te whakaahua o te kawakawa: NZLogan, CC BY-NC 4.0, Ahunga i a iNaturalistNZ.
Te hopunga o te aho – te kanokāriki me ngā pūmāota
Ko te pūmāota tētehi wāhanga o ngā pūtau o te rau rākau.
Nā te kanokāriki kei roto i ngā pūmāota, ka taea e ngā rau te huri i te pūngao aho o Tama-nui-te rā hei pūngao matū.
Nā te kanokāriki e kākāriki ai ngā pūmāota me ngā rau.
Catching sunlight – chlorophyll and chloroplasts
Chloroplasts are part of the cells of a tree’s leaves.
Due to the chlorophyll contained in chloroplasts, leaves can transform the light energy of the sun into chemical energy.
Chlorophyll is what makes chloroplasts and leaves green.
Ka hangaia e te rākau ngōna wāhanga katoa i te kūhuka e puta ai i te ahotakakame
Ka whakaahuatia nei te kahikatea (ngā rau hou, ngā kākano, ngā pakiaka me te tinana) hei tauira.
Te tinana o te Kahikatea nā Cheryl Dawson, CC BY-NC 4.0; Ngā kākano, Peter de Lange, E wātea tūmatawhānui ana; Ngā rau, nā Jane Gosden, CC BY-NC 4.0; me ngā pakiaka, nā Annfr, CC BY-NC 4.0. Ahunga i a iNaturalistNZ. Kahikatea, Matt Stribey.
Ka taea e nga tupu te whakaputu i te kūhuka hei māngaro, arā, he raupapa roa noa iho o ngā rāpoi ngota kūhuka.
Plants can store glucose as starch, which is made up of long chains of glucose molecules.
Ka whakaputua te māngaro e ngā tipu hei kai māna ā muri ake nei, hei kai mā ngāna uri rānei. Ka pērā hoki te kānga mā ngōna kākano, me te kūmara mā ngōna kōpura.
Starch can be stored by plants for future use or as food for their offspring. Corn does this via its seeds, and kūmara does it using tubers.
Te ahotakakame, te māngaro me te hurihanga-ora o ngā tupu – kūmara
Ka whakaahuatia nei te kūmara hei tauira o te whakaputa i te māngaro kei roto i ngā kōpura, hei kai mā te tupu hou.
He tini hoki ngā painga o te ahotakakame ki a tātou te tangata
Ka kaingia e tātou te māngaro hei kākano, hei hua, hei purapura rānei.
Ka whakairotia te kōhiwi tōtara e te tohunga whakairo.
Ka rarangatia ngā rau o te harakeke e ngā kaiwhatu.
Ka whakaritea e tātou he rongoā mai i ngā rau o te kawakawa.
Ka mutu, ko tā te ahotakakame he whakaputa hāora kia whai hā tonu ai te mataora, mō nāianei, ā, mō ake tonu atu.
Photosynthesis benefits us in many ways
We eat starch as seeds, tubers or fruit.
Master carvers use the heartwood of tōtara to build waka and wharenui.
Weavers use the leaves of the harakeke.
We can prepare rongoā from the leaves of the kawakawa.
What’s more, photosynthesis produces oxygen.
Ngā painga o te ahotakakame
He tini hoki ngā painga o te ahotakakame ki a tātou te tangata.
Image acknowledgements: Tōtara prow Tauihu, Waka taua Te Toki a Tapiri, Reverend John Kinder. Circa 1865. Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Accession No 1983/22/15. Harakeke bassinet, Sue Scheele. Nō roto mai i Te Reo o Te Repo – The Voice of the Wetland. Hāngī meal by Juli R, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Kawakawa poultice, photo by Simon Waterfield, from Connected article: The Science of Rongoā. Crown Copyright.
Download
This resource is available as a te reo Māori only Word document file for kura to adapt as required.
He kōrero kōpūtahi ❘ Related content
Kia mōhio ai koutou, he ataata reo Pākehā kē tēnei
Please note that this video is in te reo Pākehā
Watch our webinar He rauemi reo Māori mō ngā rākau – Te reo Māori plant resources for an overview of the bilingual resources created with Dr Norm Mason.
Ngā hono ❘ Useful links
Rākau – Paekupu
Ahotakakame – Paekupu
He whakamihi
Tēnei te mihi nui ki a Mokoro Gillett (Tumuaki o Te Wharekura o Te Rau Aroha) rāua ko Norman Mason (Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research). Tēnā kōrua.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Mokoro Gillett (Principal of Te Wharekura o Te Rau Aroha) and Norman Mason (Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research).
