Kaute: An Endemic East Polynesian Hibiscus?

Abstract

Kaute and its derivatives koute, ʻoute and ʻaute are Polynesian names for a red-flowered Hibiscus. Since its first botanical collection on Tahiti by Banks and Solander (1769), this hibiscus has been referred to as H. rosa-sinensis L. and assumed to have been introduced by the bearers of the archaeological culture known as Lapita. Lapita people settled West Polynesia around 2800 BP and spoke a language derived from Proto-Oceanic, the common ancestor of almost all the Austronesian languages of Island Melanesia and Micronesia as well as Polynesia. However, whereas Proto-Oceanic names can be reconstructed for many plants found in East Polynesia, the term kaute cannot be attributed to Proto-Oceanic, the name likely being locally derived in East Polynesia from that of paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera (L.) L’Hér. ex Vent.). On the basis of linguistic evidence, we contend that kaute was domesticated in a high island area of Central Eastern Polynesia and then dispersed in relatively recent pre-European times (ca. 500–700 BP) westwards through West Polynesia, to nearby islands such as the Fiji archipelago and Rotuma and to Polynesian Outliers in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Dissemination occurred before the -au- sequence changed to -ou- and k sporadically changed to ʻ, so that kaute rather than contemporary Marquesan koute and ʻoute was the term that was carried westward from the Marquesas. Kaute is here suggested to be an endemic East Polynesian species, different from H. rosa-sinensis L. Further field and genetic research is needed to definitively determine the phylogenetic relationships of kaute and a taxonomic description is required for formal recognition.