10 
BULLETIN 58, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Well-developed tubers of the cultivated variety average about 
three-fourths of an inch in length by three-eighths of an inch in 
diameter when dried. Tubers from wild plants are usually much 
smaller and have a greater proportion of fiber. The general appear- 
ance of chufas and of tubers from a wild sedge are well shown by 
figure 9. 
Chufas are known also by the vernacular names, earth almonds 
and ground nuts, and the plant as nut grass and cache-cache. 
* p 
% 
9* 
* 
0* 

Fig. 9.— Tubers of wild Cypcrus and cultivated chufas. (Natural size.) 
DISTRIBUTION. 
The northern boundary of the natural range of the chufa is marked 
by the following localities: Southern New Brunswick, southern 
Ontario, northern Nebraska, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Columbia 
River Valley. The plant seems to be absent from most of the Great 
Basin and Rocky Mountain regions. From the northern line specified 
the plant ranges southward over the remainder of the continent. (See 
fig. 10.) It is widely distributed in warm climates over the entire 
world. 
