Rapa Nui | Te Papa’s Blog

‘We are the same-same.’ Rapa Nui visitors to Te Papa

This past Saturday (1 December 2012), we had a special request from a group of visitors who were going to be in Wellington for a weekend. They wished to come in and talk to some of the curators and see the collection. This is relatively common but what was slightlyRead more

By: Puawai Cairns

On: 5 Dec 2012

In: Māori, Pacific

Close-up of the flowers of Sophora toromiro growing at the National Botanic Gardens in Viña del Mar, Chile. Photo © Heidi M. Meudt.

The toromiro tree: Kōwhai’s remarkable cousin from Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Does the plant in the above photo look familiar? That’s probably because the tree in the photo is in the same genus—Sophora—as the kōwhai. There are about 45 species of Sophora worldwide, including the toromiro tree from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) shown above. There are eight different species of SophoraRead more

By: Heidi Meudt

On: 29 Nov 2010

In: Pacific, Science