A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Fecula,-ae (s.f.I), also faecula,-ae (s.f.I):

[> L. faecula,-ae (s.f.I) “dried lees of wine, argol, tartar (used as a condiment or medicine” (Glare); dim. of fex, gen.sg. fecis (s.f.III), q.v., also faex, gen.sg. faecis (s.f.III), dregs, sediment; lees; syn. flocces,-um (pl.f.III].

- faecula faex est vini vel aceti quae coquitur et reponitur (Galen in Everett), faecula [i.e. wine lees] is the dregs of wine or vinegar.

1. “starch or similar substances” (Jackson); starchy sediment extracted, usually by leaching, as a residue from plants, some used as a food source, as the starch in the pith, or medulla of the Sago Palm; a form of starch obtained from some plants (as an arrowroot); see starch.

NOTE: Cycas revoluta Thunb., Sago Palm, the pith, i.e. medulla, contains edible starch as fecula (= faecula).

2. “burnt tartar or salt of tartar, deposited in the form of a crust by wine (used as a condiment or as a drug” (Lewis & Short).

Tartar (Eng. noun): a deposit of impure potassium hydrogen tartrate formed during the fermentation of wine; cream of tartar: a white, crystalline, acidic compound obtained as a by product of wine fermentation and used chiefly in baking powder (Wikipedia).

3. fecal matter, esp. of insects.

4. foul or muddy matter as a sediment of or residue in a fluid.

Arrowroot (Eng. noun): a reference to tropical plants bearing edible starch in their rhizomes (rootstocks), such as Maranta arundinacea, Zamia integrifolia, Manihot esculenta, Pueraria lobata.

Lee(s) (Eng. noun): “the settlings of liquor (as wine) during fermentation and aging: dregs, sediment - now used only in the plural” (WIII).

Settlings (Eng. noun): “subsidence, sedimentation; matter that settles at the bottom of a liquid: lees, dregs” (WIII): suspended matter, matter in suspension (in a fluid).

“Fiber of Cycas magnified: transverse section of fibers and medullary rays, and of the cells of the cortical parenchyma filled with fecula.” p. 486. “Polygonum bistorta, P. sibiricum: The roots abound in fecula, which, when the tan is separated, may be used as food” p. 598. “The cathartic powers of the rhubarbs is believed to depend on a peculiar proximate principle called Phybarbarin; this is however blended, and its action modified, by the bland fecula and astringent matters with which it is combined” p. 599. Glycyrrhiza: “The roots also abound in fecula.” p.653. “Corydalis bulbosa, which has grumous roots abounding in fecula, is resorted to by the Kalmucs in winter as food.” p. 853. “Tbe roots of Cnicus tuberosus are fleshy, and, from the quantity of fecula they contain mingled with a bitter principle, tonic and nutritious” p. 933. The potato has “vast deposits of fecula” p.986. (Burnett).

[Root form] “Tuber, Tuberculum. A thick, solid part, usually filled with féculae, placed either upon the root, as in turneps [sic], earthnuts, filipendula, or on those lower branches of the stem which are subterraneous and rootlike, as in the potatoe” (S. Gray).

“... from the leaves, &c. of the Podalyria tinctoria, or Wild Indigo, a coarse, some what violet-coloured, fecula, which was applied to the purposes of indigo, was prepared by the people in some parts of the United States, during the time of the revolutionary war” (Barton).

NOTE: such tuberous roots are also described as “grumose,” i.e. filled with a grainy substance; see grumosus,-a,-um (adj.A).

[Root form] “Exostosis. A tuber of a woody consistence, not containing feculae. Cyperus disticha.” (S. Gray).

[Fruit form; Glans] Calybion. Fruit fleshy and feculent, one-celled, one seeded, pericarp adhering closely to the seed ...” (S. Gray).

grumosus,-a,-um (adj.A): grumous, “divided into little clustered grains; as the faecula in the stem of the Sago Palm” (Lindley).