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Story: Pacific migrations

‘Taputini’ – a traditional kūmara cultivar

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‘Taputini’ – a traditional kūmara cultivar

The large kūmara (sweet potato) available in supermarkets are quite different from the more slender varieties that Polynesians brought with them to New Zealand. Kūmara were the most successful introduced crop, flourishing in northern, coastal areas. However, they were marginal in the colder central North Island and the South Island. They came originally from South America and were being grown and eaten in Cook Islands by 1000 CE. 

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The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand - Kuratini Tuwhera

by Graham Harris

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How to cite this page

Geoff Irwin, Pacific migrations – The world’s first seafarers, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/1763/taputini-a-traditional-kumara-cultivar (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Geoff Irwin, published 4 March 2009, updated 8 February 2017.