Okeepenauk
| Title |
Okeepenauk |
| Caption |
Calvatia gigantea (Batsch) Fr. – Giant puffball |
| Source |
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/aug98.htm |
| URL |
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/aug98.htm |
| Type |
Photograph |
| Origin |
Internet |
| Notes |
Hariot; p. 16 round in shape, found in dry grounds, some as big as a man’s head, eaten as they are taken from the ground, dry and neither roast seeth [?]; Bellis [Could this be Giant puffball, Calvatia gigantea (Batsch) Fr.] (?); See Kreiger 1967 ‘The Mushroom Handbook’ ; p.278 8-15 in. diam., sometimes larger, globose; in grassy places August to September. “This is the largest species of the puffball family. One specimen is often enough for a very large family.”; {H&D} suggested that this root might be “a relative of morning glory or sweet potato”.; This is a good guess!; 1. Wild yam Dioscorea sp.; Ewan ; p.370 cites Banister as referring to the “great ones” Sweet potato. Parkinson (1640) in ‘Theatrum Botanicum’, fig. 1383 labeled “Battata occidentalis Indiae, West Indian Potato” which is Ipomoea batatas. Shown also is “The Negros Potato” which is a Dioscorea. Dioscorea, true yam, is believed to have been introduced with the slaves from tropical Africa. If the tropical (American) genus (Ipomoea) were cultivated in early Virginia, it was very soon abandoned because of the unfavorable climate.; 2. Sweet potato Ipomoea sp.; Ligon, R. 1657 ‘A true and Excellent … Barbados’ p.31 mobby or moby was a drink made from the liquor of pounded Sweet potatos and water fermented with sugar or molasses. Suppers of slaves in Barbados have been described as a few Sweet potatos for bread or meat, and water or “Mobbie” for drink. ; Jaques 1958 ‘Economic Plants’, p.137 (Sweet potato – Ipomoea batatas Lam.) is a native of tropical America.; Medsger; p.193 Ipomoea pandurata Wild Potato Vine, or Mecha-meck, or Man-Of-The-Earth; “far beneath the surface of the ground, this plant has a great fleshy root that often weighs from ten to twenty pounds. . . . roots brittle and slightly milkey when fresh, only one root to a vine. “The Indians named the plant Mecha-meck, . . .was a favorite food among them.” They could easily roast the roots in the ashes of their campfires.”; [NB –VJB, Ref. to ‘roasting in campfires’ may rule Wild Potato out as a possibility here.]; Radford 1968; p.868 Ipomoea pandurata (L.) G.F.W. Meyer “Man-root” found in nearly every county in NC and SC.; Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. Sweet Potato A rare escape from cultivation, Duplin Co., NC.; |
Occurrences
Okeepenauk
