Origins and dispersal of the Maori bottle gourd.

Abstract

Our research group at the Allan Wilson Centre has discovered that the bottle gourd (or hue in Maori) grown in Polynesia originated in both Asia and the Americas. The bottle gourd, which is closely related to other curcurbits such as pumpkin and watermelon, is one of the many crops that Polynesians took with them as they settled the islands of the Pacific, including Aotearoa New Zealand.