THE FRUITING STAGE OF THE TUCKAHOE, PACHYMA 



COCOS 



Plates 34-37 



By Frederick A. Wolf 



The names tuckahoe, Indian bread or Indian potato appear to be 

 quite generally known in the Coastal Plains section of the Caro- 

 linas as a designation for certain tuber-like structures which grow 

 under ground. These structures are frequently unearthed by the 

 plow especially when timbered lands are brought under cultivation. 

 During the past spring, fifteen specimens were collected near Raleigh, 

 N. C, in a situation where the land had been cleared and broken in 

 preparation for a tobacco plant bed. Subsequently four other speci- 

 mens were unearthed by the writer and several of his colleagues in 

 the same locality. 



My acquaintance with tuckahoe extends over a period of several 

 years since occasional specimens, similar in appearance and accom- 

 panied by inquiries as to their nature, have been received at the 

 botanical laboratories of this Station. An examination showed that a 

 tuckahoe is obviously the sclerotial or resting stage of some fungus 

 and as such is composed of a vegetative mass of fungous tissue. This 

 fact gave no clue to the identity and systematic position of the fungus 

 since various fungi are known to produce sclerotia. An examina- 

 tion of published reports on large sclerotia furthermore showed that 

 not only the affinities of the tuckahoe, Pachyma Cocos, which has been 

 collected by a number of botanists, but also the origin and forma- 

 tion of these subterranean fungous masses have remained for years 

 an unsolved botanical problem. It was the writer's good fortune, 

 however, during May, 1922, to observe the fruiting stage of this 

 fungus. The present purpose is, therefore, to assemble the infor- 

 mation in hand as a contribution to our knowledge of this unusually 

 interesting form. 



Historical 



The name tuckahoe is of Indian origin and is apparently generic 

 among them for all round or roundish edible roots. Gore (7) quotes 

 the statement of Trumbull, an ethnologist, that the word is derived 



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