New research has found that taro was one of the first main crops which Maori produced after settling in New Zealand.
Taro has long been a primary staple food of most Polynesian societies, and throughout the Western Pacific as well.
But new reseach refutes long-held theories that this tropical crop was unable to be grown in the cooler climes of New Zealand.
Palynologist Matthew Prebble of the Australian National University was part of a team of archaeologists from Auckland University and Auckland Museum, who analysed buried sediments from swamps on Ahuahu-Great Mercury Island off New Zealand's Coromandel peninsula.
He spoke to Johnny Blades.
Great Mercury Island Photo: Google Maps
His team's research can be accessed here.
