Home gardener grows rare red ku¯mara flower
A red ku¯mara flower, blooms purple amid Sam Mockford’s cultivated greens
In the verdant gardens of Tauranga, a dedicated resident with a green thumb has unearthed an astounding botanical treasure – a rare flowering of a red ku¯ mara.
For the past couple of years, Welcome Bay’s Sam Mockford has diligently tended to his garden, nurturing a variety of vegetables.
However, it was a recent discovery that has captured the attention – a rare red ku¯ mara flower, blooming purple amid his carefully cultivated greens.
The special moment is almost as magical as spotting a unicorn, with the flower stealing the spotlight putting on a fleeting performance for Mockford as the star of the show.
This unexpected find sparked his curiosity, and he quickly looked online to learn that the red ku¯mara very seldom flowers.
“I have around eight to 10 ku¯mara plants down currently,” he said.
“Been growing my own food for a couple years now.”
He had heard that the flower is very rare, only a couple weeks ago. “Never thought I’d get one, though.” He first noticed the flowers on the weekend.
“There were three flowers in total but two got damaged from the recent storms. And one remains, but I only noticed it today [Saturday, April 13].”
He grew some of the ku¯mara plants from sprouts himself and the rest he got from his partner Roselle Entwistle’s mother Jenny Innes.
“We love growing our own food because nothing tastes better than fresh food straight out the garden.”
It is thought that ku¯mara plants only flower under great stress. Stress may be related to the day length shortening at this time of year, or the state of high humidity combined with damp soil. Coupled with this is that ku¯mara don’t flower often in New Zealand anyway, because they are a tropical vegetable.
The flower doesn’t last long, but before collapsing, it puts on a spectacular display amongst the garden greenery. The journey from bud to wilting is a covert operation, and would have been missed if Mockford hadn’t been paying close attention.
The bud unfurls into a bloom that resembles a morning glory, and is typically purple or pink-tinged, with no fragrance, just a vibrant colour and unique shape. Likened to a cameo appearance in a blockbuster movie – short but impactful, the flowering period is quickly over. If you blink, you miss it.
In 2017, a surprised Auckland man reported flowers growing on a red ku¯mara in his inner city Freemans Bay garden. The experts in the ku¯mara capital of Ruawai in Northland were consulted.
One man who had worked with red and gold ku¯ mara for 30 years said he had never seen one flower. However, apparently the orange ku¯ mara would regularly flower.
He attributed it to the time of year when the day is shortening and something is stressing the plant. It was noted that it was more common to see the ku¯mara flower up north under drought conditions. There was also a larger volume of ku¯mara growing up north, which would improve the odds of seeing a ku¯ mara flowering.
The ku¯ mara has been reported to have flowered once in Russell in the early 1960s, and in 2010 in parts of Northland, and in 2019 in Nelson.
In 2021, a Kaitaia woman was delighted to find the unexpected appearance of a purple ku¯mara flower in her garden.
The red ku¯ mara, also known as the red sweet potato or Ipomoea batatas, is a variety of sweet potato, with its cultivation by New Zealand Ma¯ ori recorded at the time of Captain Cook’s first exploration. Ma¯ ori, prior to the arrival of whalers and sealers, are reported to have had 80 named variety of ku¯mara, which were highly prized and valuable.
Ma¯ori traditional accounts agree that the plant was introduced to Aotearoa by people aboard the early voyaging canoes, usually by a notable woman specially charged with the task of ensuring its survival. The red ku¯mara is still a cultural and culinary staple in New Zealand.
With flowers being relatively rare for these edible tubers, it makes them a special find for gardeners like Mockford, who is enjoying the garden-to-table experience.
“Best eating for ku¯mara is either homemade ku¯ mara fries or just the easy roast ku¯mara in the oven,” Mockford said.
“If we grow too much ku¯ mara that we can’t keep up with, then we will give them away to family or neighbours.”
He’s keeping a close eye on the plants to see if more flowers will appear, already spotting new buds popping up amongst the plants.
“I’m just blown away that I have this wonderful rare flower growing on our property.”
"We love growing our own food because nothing tastes better than fresh food straight out the garden." Sam Mockford