New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1996, Vol. 34: 417-420
0028-825X/96/3403-0417 $2.50/0 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 1996
417
Short communication
To what New Zealand plant does the vernacular "scurvy grass"
refer?
historical usage of common names, especially when
they were applied to plants prior to their being formally described. While assembling information for
an account of the conservation of coastal New Zealand Lepidium species (Norton et al. in press), we
have come across this historical problem with the use
of the vernacular "scurvy grass", and it has been necessary for us to determine what was meant by scurvy
grass before we could evaluate evidence for changes
D. A. NORTON
in the status of coastal Lepidium species.
Conservation Research Group
In this communication, we evaluate what plant(s)
School of Forestry
the vernacular scurvy grass was applied to by the
University of Canterbury
early European voyagers who visited New Zealand
Private Bag 4800
in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Did the vernacular scurvy grass refer to Lepidium
oleraceum Sparrm. as is commonly assumed, at least
since Kirk (1899), or was it more broadly used to
Abstract The term "scurvy grass" is used widely include a range of taxa that were used as green vegin New Zealand as a vernacular for the formerly etables? This is important as the taxonomy of what
widespread brassicaceous herb Lepidium oleraceum. we now call L. oleraceum had not been resolved at
We show that historical usage of this vernacular was the time of early European visits, and it is the acnot necessarily confined to this species or genus, counts from these visits that provide us with an inthereby illustrating the need for caution in using sight into the abundance of Lepidium at the time of
historical accounts to help determine past abundance, first European contact.
ecology, and distribution.
P. J. DE LANGE
Northern Regional Science Group
Science & Research Division
Department of Conservation
Private Bag 68908
Newton
Auckland, New Zealand
Keywords Vernacular names; scurvy grass;
Lepidium; L. oleraceum
INTRODUCTION
Vernacular or common names can be a cause of
considerable confusion in botany, often because either the same common name has been applied to
more than one plant or because different common
names are used to describe the same plant (Parham
& Healy 1976). Similar problems also occur with
Maori names (Beever 1984, 1991; Anon. 1993). A
further difficulty occurs in attempting to understand
B95054
Received 22 November 1995; accepted 19 April 1996
EARLY USE OF "SCURVY GRASS"
One of the main problems facing early explorers
such as James Cook was ensuring that their crews
did not suffer from scurvy (Begg & Begg 1969).
Plants that could be eaten as fresh greens were, therefore, eagerly sought in new lands. Plants in the
Apiaceae and Brassicaceae were particularly popular because they were well known as green vegetables in Europe. The vernacular name scurvy grass
appears to have been collectively used for all edible
greens but especially those brassicaceous herbs
which resemble the European scurvy grass
Cochlearia (Gillham 1965), although current usage
of the vernacular appears to be restricted to
Cochlearia officinalis L. (Brassicaceae), Stellaria
holostea L. (Caryophyllaceae), and Galium aparine
L. (Rubiaceae) (Grigson 1975).
418
On his first voyage, Cook stopped in Tierra del
Fuego (South America) prior to entering the Pacific,
and Joseph Banks noted (14 January 1769):
"Here is also plenty of wild celery apium antescorbuticum, scurvy grass cardamine antescorbutica,
both of which are as pleasant to the taste as any herbs
of the kind found in Europe and I believe possess as
much virtue in curing the scurvy" (Beaglehole
1962a: 217).
Beaglehole notes that Apium antescorbuticum
Hort. is A. prostratum Vent, (now referred to A.
australe Thouars. in South America, Short 1979),
and that Cardamine antescorbutica Banks et Sol. ex
Hook.f. is C. glacialis (G.Forst.) DC.
Banks also referred to scurvy grass in Tahiti when
discussing edible plants (3 June 1769):
". . . and with these [sic] grew several plants we
had not seen at Otahite, among them Iberis, which
Mr [sic] Gore tells me is the plant called by the voyagers scurvy grass which grows plentifully upon all
the low Islands" (Beaglehole 1962a: 285).
Beaglehole refers the Iberis to Lepidium bidentatum Montin, which is morphologically similar to
L. oleraceum (Whistler 1992).
From Tahiti, Cook sailed to New Zealand, to
which he returned to on two further occasions.
Scurvy grass is referred to in several of the journals
kept during Cook's three voyages to New Zealand.
In his diary on the first voyage, Cook in describing
events at Tolaga Bay (27 October 1769) noted:
". . . the other place I landed at was at the north
point of the Bay where I got as much Sellery and
Scurvy grass as loaded the Boat" (Beaglehole 1968:
184).
Beaglehole calls sellery Apium prostratum and A
filiforme (A.Rich.) Hook.f. (= A. prostratum subsp.
prostratum MW. filiforme (A.Rich.) Kirk, Short 1979)
and scurvy grass Lepidium oleraceum.
Reflecting on the botany of New Zealand shortly
before departing for Australia, Banks commented
(30 March 1770):
"Eatable Vegetables there are very few. We indeed as people who had been long at sea found great
benefit in the article of health by eating plentifully
of wild Celery, and a kind of Cresses which grew
every where abundan[t]ly near the sea side."
(Beaglehole 1962b: 8).
Beaglehole attributes the celery to the taxa noted
above but suggests that "Cresses" were:
"Probably what Cook called scurvy-grass,
Lepidium oleraceum; other candidates would be a
wild cress called Poniu, Nasturtium palustre and
Cardamine glacialis " (Beaglehole 1962b: 8).
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1996, Vol. 34
Nasturtium palustre DC. is now referred to Rorippa
palustris (L.) Besser (Garnock-Jones 1978), a common indigenous New Zealand plant. Cardamine
glacialis is not known in New Zealand but the record
may refer to R. divaricata (Hook.f.) Garn.-Jones et
Jonsell, C. corymbosa Hook.f., or taxa within the C.
debilis DC. aggregate.
Anderson, a surgeon on Cook's third voyage, also
discussed edible plants and commented (25 February 1777):
"Of other plants which were useful to us may be
reckon'd wild celery which grows plentifully almost
in every cove, especially if the natives have ever
resided there before, and one which we us'd to call
scurvy grass though entirely different from the plant
we gave the name to. It however is far preferable to
it for common use and may be known by its jagged
leaves and small clusters of white flowers on the top"
(Beaglehole 1967: 804).
Beaglehole refers the wild celery to Apium
prostratum, and the second of the two scurvy grasses
to Lepidium oleraceum.
DISCUSSION
It would seem very likely that Lepidium oleraceum
was included in the original concept of scurvy grass
in New Zealand, but that scurvy grass was in itself
non-specific and also referred to other brassicaceous
plants and even quite unrelated taxa. For example,
in his commentary on Banks' diary Beaglehole noted
that in Tierra del Fuego:
"Cardamine glacialis DC. 'Scurvy grass' (which
Banks had called Cardamine antescorbutica) was a
loose term applied to many unrelated plants sharing
antiscorbutic properties: Cardamine nasturtioides, as
well as C. glacialis; Oxalis enneaphylla of the Falkland Islands; Amaranthus spp., Brassica juncea,
Portulaca oleracea, Sesuvium portulacastrum, collectively called 'verdura' by the Spanish navigators,
were all used in the Pacific Islands" (Beaglehole
1962a: 217).
Beaglehole generally interprets the use of scurvy
grass in New Zealand to refer to Lepidium
oleraceum, although at one point in Banks' journal,
Banks refers to cresses in the plural which Beaglehole (1962b) suggests may also include Nasturtium
palustre (Rorippa palustris) and Cardamine
glacialis. Anderson also implies that the name
scurvy grass was applied to more than one plant,
when in the confusing passage quoted above he
comments that what was previously called scurvy
de Lange & Norton—Vernacular plant names
grass was completely different to what they now
called scurvy grass. Beaglehole (1967) interprets the
description of the latter plant as matching L.
oleraceum. Unfortunately, no description or other
indication is given to the identity of the former plant
which may have been a Rorippa species or, as is
more likely, a species of Cochlearia, a genus commonly referred to as scurvy grass within the British
Isles and western Europe (Clapham et al. 1962).
That Banks and Solander collected Lepidium
oleraceum is well documented, and it is this species
which is illustrated in the unpublished Banksian
plates (Diment et al. 1987). Banks and Solander also
collected L. flexicaule Kirk (which they called L.
incisum Banks et Sol. ex Hook.f.), although they
only found this once "scattered along the beach" at
Opuraga, Mercury Bay (Diment et al. 1987;
Garnock-Jones & Norton 1995), the Purangi River
of today. However, aside from Banks' journals neither species was referred to as scurvy grass. Solander
in his unpublished 'Primitiae Florae Novae
Zelandiae' included a species with the manuscript
name L. frondosum Banks et Sol. which, based on
the written description, is clearly what we now refer to as L. oleraceum but again no vernacular name
was recorded. The Forsters also collected L.
oleraceum, although it was first described by
Sparrman (Connor & Edgar 1987) who was with the
Forsters on the second voyage in 1780, and not by
Forster in 1786 as has usually been supposed. It is
not clear from their accounts whether these early
botanists reserved the vernacular scurvy grass solely
for L. oleraceum. However, by the time the French
(under d'Urville) visited New Zealand during the
1820s, vernacular usage of "scurvy grass" was being increasingly confined to L. oleraceum and the
morphologically similar L. banksii Kirk which Richard (1832) mistakenly included within L.
oleraceum. Kirk (1899) largely resolved the taxonomy of the shrubby coastal Lepidium species. By
this time "scurvy grass" was mainly used to refer to
L. oleraceum, which has continued to be the predominant usage to the present.
Based on these early records it would seem that
originally the vernacular scurvy grass, while referring to Lepidium oleraceum, also included other
species, mainly in the Brassicaceae. In New Zealand
these are likely to have included Rorippa divaricata,
R. palustris, and Cardamine species. However, there
may have been times when scurvy grass was used
more loosely to include Apium prostratum, perhaps
Tetragonia species, and Chenopodium glaucum
A.Cunn. subsp. ambiguum (R.Br.) Thell. which
419
Banks also notes was "once or twice" used for food
(Beaglehole 1962b: 8).
The non-specific use of the vernacular scurvy
grass in the early days of botanical exploration of
New Zealand suggests that we should be cautious in
using written historical accounts for assessing
changes in species abundance through time. While
there is much we can and should learn from these
early accounts, we must be cautious in interpreting
what the authors actually were referring to in their
use of particular vernacular names. In the case of
Lepidium oleraceum, it would seem that we have
tended to accept too readily historical accounts based
on vernacular names in assessing past abundance
(e.g., Oliver 1925; Richards 1956; Given 1981;
Wilson 1982; Wilson & Given 1989). Certainly
Thomas Cheeseman recognised this problem in his
assessment of the abundance of L. oleraceum:
"On the whole, however, it can hardly be said to
be a plentiful species at the present time, whatever
its position may have been in Cook's days."
Cheeseman (1914).
While it is true that historical records are often an
invaluable source of information on past abundance,
ecology, and distribution of a species, we must be
careful not to draw conclusions from such subjective data sources without the benefit of supporting
objective data.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Phil Garnock-Jones, Ewen Cameron, Kevin
Jones, and Gillian Crowcroft for their comments.
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