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Introduction
Manoao = Halocarpus kirkii
Manoao = Manoao colensoi
Manoao in Te Paipera Tapu
These trees have much in common, besides being members of the Podocarp family -- an ancient lineage of trees that were present in Aotearoa when the Dinosaurs died out (see George Gibbs, Ghosts of Gondwana, pp. 91-2). Their presence on the Te Māra Reo website, however, is not because of their antiquity, but because their name is mentioned in Te Paipera Tapu, the Māori translation of the Bible. Which of the two manoao is referred to in that book is uncertain, but the context fits either or both species so both are included here (this is discussed further in the final section of this page). In several important works on New Zealand trees Halocarpus kirkii is called monoao; this however is an error -- monoao is the name of a very different plant, the small, grass-like shrub Dracophyllum subulatum.
Manoao = Halocarpus kirkii
 This tree (pictured left) is endemic to New Zealand, and is found only in the North Iskand from Port Wakato, just south of Auckland, and Coromandel north, and on Great Barrier Island. It is normally associated with the fringes of kauri forests, gumlands, and land that has been subject to fires, gum digging, and similar disturbances. Like the kauri, it is now an endangered species through loss of natural habitat, which in this case is periodically disturbed land. The tree grows to about 25 metres high, with the male and female inflorescences on different trees. It has shiny black seeds which take two years to mature, and are distributed by birds. This manoao was a sacred tree, with the branches used to provide a resting place deceased for rangatira until their bones were scraped for interment. It has an extremely durable timber which traditionally was also used for coffins.
Murdoch Riley (Herbal, p. 275) notes that it could not be used to make a fire except in dire emergencies, and then only after appropriate karakia had been recited to remove the tapu. He also notes that it was said to have been the first tree planted in Aotearoa after Maui hauled the North Island from the depths. Apart from its traditional uses, it has at times proved an excellent wood for fence posts, railway sleepers and telegraph poles. John Dawson and Rob Lucas (New Zealand's Native Trees, p. 70) also report that it is a source of manool (a chemical compound used to give perfumes an ambergis-like aroma).
Manoao = Manoao colensoi
 This tree is found mainly on the volcanic plateau in the North Island and in the "pākihi lands" in the western South Island. Pākihi is a Māori word for land that has been dug up for fernroot and open land; the pākihi lands are infertile boggy lands with very little vegetation, mainly rushes, tangle fern (Gleichenia dicarpa -- illustrated on the left), and mosses, with a few manoao for good measure. These habitats make it a prime candidate to be the Biblical "heath in the desert" (see below). Although found at all altitudes, Manoao colensoi is mainly associated with these poor, infertile soils. The tree has very deep roots, and grows to about 20 metres high. The roots and underground stems develop special spongy tissue to enable them to "breathe" in waterlogged conditions. Some trees bear only female flowers, others intact inflorescences. The seeds are very small (less than 4x3 mm.) and take about a year to develop -- and another year to germinate. Like its counterpart manoao, it has very durable timber which has been used fence posts, telephone poles, and railway sleepers as well as in bridge construction. The timber is also a source of manool.
Manoao in Te Paipera Tapu
 Both species of manoao are to a large extent "trees of the wasteland", and the Māori Biblical references, confined to two verses in the Book of Jeremaiah, could be taken as pointing either of these two trees separately, or both jointly. The Hebrew word 'arar, which manoao translates, probably denoted a species of Juniper: Juniperus sabina, "savin", or, in Michael Zohary's opinion, isolated plants of the Phoenician Juniper, Juniperis phoenicea (illustrated on the left). When fully grown this shrub or small tree reaches 5-8 metres in height, with a rounded or irregular crown. The female cones are berry-like with seeds that mature in about 18 months and are mostly dispersed by birds, very much the same as for their podocarp counterparts in Aotearoa. They grow in rocky and sandy places from Morocco and Southern France to Lebanon, but, unlike the New Zealand trees, have very shallow roots despite their ability to withstand drought.
Manoao makes its only appearances in Te Paipera Tapu in two verses in Jeremaiah. In the first of these the English and Maori translations seem to fit in well with each other and with the Hebrew original:
Ka rite hoki ia ki te manoao i te koraha, e kore hoki e kite i te putanga mai o te pai; engari ko nga wahi waikore o te koraha hei kainga mona, he whenua tote, e kore nei e nohoia. [Jeremaiah 17:6]
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. [KJV]
He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. [RSV]
E ‘avea o ia e pei o le tula i le vao, na te lē iloa fo’i pe a o’o mai mea lelei; e mau ai o ia i mea pa‘a‘ā i le vao, o le nu‘u naumati ma le lē ‘ainā. [TP]
It is the Samoan translation which is puzzling here. "Tula"
is not a tree name, in Samoan, Hebrew, or Greek, nor do its everyday meanings in Samoan have anything to do with vegetation. However, the Rev. Victor Pouesi of the Samoan Congregational Church in Mangere has kindly pointed out in response to my enquiry about this usage of tula that in this context although the word normally has do do with baldness (that is, lack of hair on the head) in this case it could have been used metaphorically to mean 'standing on holy ground "tulafasa" The land is wild and barren but holy.' In other words, the passage can be read as an injunction to take on the form of a patch of bare land in the wilderness, present but invisible to those who do not know of its significance.
E rere, kahaki i a koutou kia ora ai, kia rite ai ki te manoao i te koraha. [Jeremaiah 48:6]]
Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness. [KJV]
Flee! Save yourselves! Be like a wild ass in the desert! [RSV -- see note below]
‘Inā sōsōla ia, ‘ia sao ‘outou ma ia ‘avea ‘outou e pei o le tula i le vao. [TP]
The translations of the second verse in which manoao appears in the Maori translation have been complicated by what may be a scribal error in the Hebrew. The relevant word in the verse can apparently be read as "aroer" in Chapter 48. The translators of the King James and Māori versions clearly interpreted this as "arar", because of the strong parallel with the verse in Chapter 17. However, it would appear the Aquila (Akulas), the Greek scholar who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek in the Second Century BC, interpreted it as 'ārod, meaning onager or wild donkey. According to notes to the verse in the Revised New Standard Version and the Jerusalem Bible, the more recent translations have followed Aquila's lead in interpreting this verse. However, like the seventeenth century and Māori translators, the Samoan translators have clearly regarded the two words as referring to the same thing, but expressed this in a unique way.
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