Its leaves are thorny, like the leaves of a screw pine. When the leaves are five or six feet long, they are cut off, the thorns and mid-rib are removed with a black mussel shell or knife, boiled and then put into the sun until quite dry. They can then be put aside until until they are scraped. When scraped they are rolled into coils until they are needed for weaving. When about to weave the mats, they first split the voivoi into strips of the required width and after splitting, the mats are woven.
Mats are the most useful and basic item of property in Fijian culture.
They are used as floor mats, for bedding, the laying out of food and for canoe sails. In days gone by the mats were often fringed with the bright feathers of the kula bird. Today, the fringes are almost always made of different brightly coloured pieces of wool. This website contains a large amount of information regarding the plants housed in our diverse collections. This information is gathered from a wide variety of electronic, print and other sources.