giginya, Borassus flabellifer, var. æthiopum, Warb. (Palmeæ). “Deleb Palm,” “Fan” or “Palmyra Palm;” common straight-stemmed palm with fan-like leaves.
muruchi = the young germinating shoots, eaten as a vegetable; shedari = a mat made of the unexpanded fronds—(called murlin giginya, vide under [murli]).
ḳodago, the nut, and the kernel kwalshi, vide under [goriba]. cf. also [gangame], [kankămi] and ḳarari. ḳarri (Kano) = fronds of giginya, cf. [kaba].
[ḳundu] (Kano) = the bulging of the giginya stem.
giginyar biri, Tacca pinnatifida, Forst. (= T. involucrata, Sch. and Thon.) (Taccaceæ). A perennial herb with a superficial resemblance to a small palm, having a long-stalked divided leaf and an umbel of greenish flowers and yellow succulent fruit. The large starchy tuber is an important article of food in some countries; a var. of “arrowroot” is prepared from it in the Pacific Islands and elsewhere; vide under [amara]. Boys call the tall flowering stems sandan yan bori, sandan biri, or sandan dutsi, and use them as toy spears. Other names for the plant are gatarin zomo and ?yayu or tara yaya (Katagum).
girgera, a var. of [gero], q.v.
giri giri, 1. In Sokoto = [aya aya], q.v. the tuber of a sedge. 2. In Kano, Hadeija, &c. = ?Pachyrhizus tuberosus, Spreng. “Yam Bean” or “Manioc Pea;” a bean with a starchy tuberous root. (vide also [sa baba sata]). The name includes Vigna ornata, Welw. a tuberous-rooted bean, with handsome pink flowers, in the Benué district (Munchi-ahoma). A speckled variety of the seeds is called kashin kaza.
gishirin dawaki, a grass; vide [dataniya].
gishishiya? (Zanfara), a species of acacia; vide [dussa].
giwa kamba, a var. of [dawa], q.v.