A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Tuber: [> L. tuber,-eris (s.n.III), a hump, bump, swelling, tumor, protuberance (on animal bodies, whether natural or caused by disease); boils, warts; a knob, hard excrescence (on wood); a kind of mushroom, a truffle, moril (a favorite article of food among the Romans, (Lewis & Short); cf. verruca,-ae (s.f.I), a wart (on the human body), opp. tuber (Lewis & Short)];

1. “a roundish under-ground succulent stem, covered with buds, from which new plants or tubers are produced; as the Potato. A receptacle of vegetable food” (Lindley); a short, fleshy underground stem or shoot bearing minute scale leaves with buds or ‘eyes’ in their axils, as the potato’ ( (Webster’s New Internatnl. 1915); “a thickened and short subterranean branch having numerous buds or eyes” (Fernald 1950); “a short, thickened fleshy stem or terminal portion of a stem or rhizome that is usually formed underground, bears minute scale leaves each with a bud capable under suitable conditions of developing into a new plant, and constitutes the resting stage of various plants (as the potato or the Jerusalem artichoke)” (WIII);

2. (in mosses) a globose or ellipsoidal brood body produced in rhizoids in mosses, usually subterranean; (in Hepatics) in liverworts, a geotropic outgrowth from the shoot apex, composed of perennating tissue, allowing for aestivation and subsequent continued growth or vegetative reproduction; e.g. Petalophyllum; (in mosses), gemmae born on rhizoids (rhizoidal gemmae), found in many acrocarpous mosses; e.g. Bryum” (Magill 1990);

3. 'swelling, protuberance, hump,' can mean a knot in wood; roundness, swelling, bump; in animals, it can indicate a bump or other swelling whether indicating disease or not; in plants it may be ‘a knob, hard excrescence on wood’ (Lewis & Short); > L. hump, knob, tumor, truffle, tuber; akin to Gk. typhE, plant used as stuffing for beds, cattail (WIII); cf. bulb, corm; see tumor,-oris (s.m.III); see swelling;

       singular           plural   
Nom. tuber (s.n.III)      tubera   
Gen. tuberis              tuberum   
Dat. tuberi               tuberibus   
Acc. tuber                tubera   
Abl. tubere               tuberibus

- tuber magnum globosum vel irregulare 10 cm. latum, carne albida amara, tuber large globose or irregular, with flesh whitish bitter.

- tubera geminata ellipsoidea vel dauciformia 2-4 cm. longa, tubers paired ellipsoid or carrot-shaped 2-4 cm. long.

- herba tubere parvo cavo, herb with tuber small hollow (Stearn).

- gemmae asexuales vulgares nunc tubera sphaerica rhizoidalia nunc caules moniliformes rhizoidales nunc tubera caulina nunc bulbili axis foliaris, asexual gemmae common now shaerical rhizoidal tubers, now moniliform rhizoidal stems, now cauline tubers now bulbils of the leaf axil.

Lignotuber,-eris (s.n.III): abl. sing. lignotubere, nom. & acc. pl. lignotubera, dat. & abl. pl. lignotuberibus: a burl of wood; see burl.

Tuber,-eris (s.n.III), abl. sg. Tubere, a genus of fungi; Tuberales (Ascomycetes); Tuberaceae, truffles and hypogeous fungi (Ainsworth & Bisby); “a family of fungi typifying the order Tuberales, having outwardly dehiscent ascocarps formed of several labyrinthine passages” (Webster’s New Internatnl. 1915);

- (fungus) Tuber [virens, a species of the genus Tuber] majus lobato - difforme, filamentis in superficie sparsim decurrentibus laxis subreticulatum, extus e rufo griseum vel sordide spadiceum, intus e viridi cinerascens (S&A), a Tuber that is larger, lobate-misshapen, with the filaments on the surface here and there decurrent, lax, somewhat reticulate, externally pure gray from reddish [i.e. reddish to a pure gray] or dingy red-brown, internally grayish from green [i.e. green to grayish].