Terfezia spinosa Harkness closely resembles T. leonis Tul., and T. (sphærotuber) Californicum n. sp., found under oaks beneath vegetable humus in Alameda county, Cal., Professor Harkness remarks, is nearly identical with an edible species found in Italy. All species found in California are said to be edible, but to be too rare to be of food value.
Pachyma cocos—“Tuckahoe.”
After Century Dictionary.
A. Mass of Tuckahoe. B. Showing
method of growing around a root.
There is a well known growth, found from New Jersey south to the Gulf and west to Kansas, called Tuckahoe (Pachyma cocos), (Plate [CLV]), an Indian name meaning a round loaf or cake, and famed for its edible qualities. Its exact place in plant growth has been variously determined. It is now conceded that it is the sclerotium or cellular reservoir of reserve material of some fungus. It is usually found attached to the roots of trees, in low marshy places. It grows several feet below the surface, and to the size of a man’s head. It varies in shape, being oblong or round, having a coarse brown covering, looking like a cocoanut. Its interior is white, compact, without cellular structure; it has no mycelium or trace of fructification. It contains as high as 77 per cent. of pectose and is therefore highly nutritious.
For full accounts see Torrey Bulletin, October, 1882; Smithsonian Inst. Rep., 1881, p. 693; article by Professor J. Howard Gore; also Garden and Forest, IX, p. 302.
The illustration is after that in the Century Dictionary, “Tuckahoe.”