A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

grumosus,-a,-um (adj.A): grumous, grumose, “divided into little clustered grains; as the faecula in the stem of the Sago Palm” (Lindley); “divided into little clusters of grains” (Jackson); grained, broken into grains or small tubercles; (fungi) “heaped; heaped-granulose; made up of clustered grains or granules” (S&D) [> L. grumus,-i (s.m.II), q.v., a little heap, hillock of earth; a small tumulus]; see fecula,-ae (s.f.I); cf. grumulosus,-a,-um (adj.A);

NOTE: Cycas revoluta Thunb., Sago Palm, the pith, i.e. medulla, contains edible starch as fecula (= faecula); see fecula,-ae (s.f.I).

- subtiliter grumosus, finely grained.

- [of pollen] Grumous, grumosum, granulatum. [Organ} “composed of many corpuscles united together, and placed on a receptacle; these corpuscles, attached to an axis, are squeezed together so as to form an ovoid mass, parted in two by a longitudinal groove. Orchis, Ophrys, Satyrium” (S. Gray).

- [Riccia sorocarpa; liverwort] perennis tamen videtur et in apicibus frondis alia corpuscula, gonidiis Drepanophylli haud absimilia, dense conferta, majuscula, crassa, erecta, oblongo-linearía vel linearia, obtusa, á singula serie cellularum formata et a massa grumosa et brunneola farcta nonnumquam in specimine cubano observavimus (Lindb.); nevertheless, it seems perennial and we had observed other corpuscles [i.e. bodies] in the apices of the frond, not dissimilar to the gonidia of Drepanophyllus, densely packed, rather large, thick, erect oblong-linear or linear, obtuse, formed from a single row of cells and sometimes stuffed with a grumose [i.e. grainy] and brownish mass in a Cuban specimen.

English usage (general):

1. grumous “resembling or containing grume: thick, clotted [as blood], = also grumose” (WIII)> Grume (Eng. noun) “a thick viscid fluid; esp. a clot of blood” (WIII).

2. grumose: grainy, “divided into little clustered grains; as the [faecula] in the stems of the Sago Palm: (Lindley); “divided into little clusters of grains” (Jackson); broken into grains or small tubercles; “formed of clustered grains or granules” (WIII); “Collectively described, the Selanthi or Cytinares are parasitic herbaceous plants, consisting wholly or chiefly of cellular structure, and destitute or nearly so of tubular vessels... The seeds are albuminous, the albumen fleshy ... the whole nucleus often consisting of a mass of homogeneous grumous matter” (Burnett p. 1073). Cytinales: “the seeds ... numerous and very minute, with a dense covering on a cellular grumous nucleus” (Burnett) p. 1078. The vegetable kingdom: “The lower series, including all the cryptogamic vegetables, even the ferns, have been considered seedless, because they are reproduced either by portions separated from their general substance, or by small grumous masses called spores...” (Burnett) p. 1087. Taccinae: “often with reticulate venation and grumous roots” (Burnett) p. 1151.

- subtiliter grumosus, finely grained.

- [fungus] Polyangium: Peridium single, thin, membranaceous, bursting irregularly, enclosing many peridiola; sporidia grumose [i.e. in grains], naked in the peridiola. (S. Gray)

- [fungus] POLYANGIUM. Ditmar. Bud-mold. Sporangium roundish, sessile; peridium membranaceous: peridiola ovate, inside grumous [i.e. packed with small grains, such as spores](S. Gray).

- [Lichen cupularis] Truncus, seu primordialis plantae pars, e qua reliquae partes succedunt grumosus, crustae in modum natali loco supertensus, inferne omnino,superne siccitate albidus, rimosusque, madens viridulus inaequalis (Hedw.), the trunk, or the primordial part of the plant, from which the remaining parts follow afterward, grumous [i.e. grainy], extended over into the limit of the crust in its native place, below entirely, above when dry, whitish and full of cracks, upon wetting greenish, irregular.

3. (botany): grumose, “clubbed, knotted”(Paxton); perhaps nodose.

NOTE: Paxton defined GRUMOSE: “clubbed, knotted” (Paxton).

S. Gray defined a form of root as “knotty” = ‘nodosa, moniliformis.’ Composed of tubercles, or knots connected together in strings, such as Avena elatior nodosa. S. Gray = a synonym of Arrhenatherum elatius subsp. bulbosum. Perhaps the notion of ‘bulb,’ however small or linked up, is involved in a ‘grumose root.’ Lindley illustrated ‘nodosus, nodulose, knotted; an irregular form of necklace-shaped; chiefly applied to roots” as small bulbs arranged one after the other on a fiber, like a necklace; cf. torosus,-a,-um (adj.A), torulosus,-a,-um (adj.A), cylindrical with [irregular] bulges or contractions at intervals, knotted, with knots or nodes; cf. articulatus,-a,-um (part.A), jointed;

4. Radix Grumosa, “grumose root,” appears generally to be a ‘bulbous’ root, but the meaning seems to have drifted so far from the classical definition of ‘grumose’ that the word seems to have been later dropped as a reference to a root form.

[Brassicaceae] “The common turnips are varieties of Brassica Rapa; B. Rapa ‘depretta’ affording the several kinds of flat or roundish turnips, and B. Rapa ‘oblonga’ the tankard or decanter sorts. .... Both their grumous roots and leaves are esculent, but they contain a very small proportion of really nutritious matter” (Burnett) p. 863).

NOTE: turnips are also described as “filled with feculae,” grainose substances related to starch; see fecula,-ae (s.f.I);

- [a “grumose” form of root:] = tuberous [i.e. “in thick fleshy masses”], and [also] resembling a collection of small seeds. [Orchidaceae] Neottia abortiva (S. Gray). Gray also reported the root of N. abortiva to be ‘fascicled.’

- “Corydalis bulbosa, which has grumous roots abounding in fecula, is resorted to by the Kalmucs in winter as food” (Gilbert).

[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).

NOTE: grumose roots of the Ranunculaceae (sec. DeCandolle);

- [Thalictrum](section) Grumosa. Radicibus grumosis, sepalis petaloideis stamina superantibus. T. TUBEROSUM. radice grumosa, floribus laxe corymbosis solitariisve(DeCandolle); section Grumosa. With the roots grumose, the sepals petaloid, overreaching the stamens. Both T. anemonoides and T. tuberosum are ‘radice grumosa,’ with a grumose root.

- [Ranunculaceae] Herbae, suffrutices aut frutices sarmentosi. Radices fasciculatae grumosae aut fibrosae (DeCandolle), herbs, subshrubs or sarmentose shrubs [i.e. producing runners]. The roots fasciculate, grumose or fibrous.

- [Isopyrum thalictroides] radice repente fasciculata aut grumosa [i.e. bulb-like](DeCandolle), with the root creeping, fasciculate [i.e. growing in bundles or bunches] or grumose [[i.e. bulb-like].

- RANUNCULUS BLEPHARICARPOS: radice grumosa, foliis radicalibus trilobis (Boiss.), with a grumose root, with the basal leaves trilobed.

- [Thalictrum] (section) Grumosa. Radicibus grumosis, sepalis petaloideis stamina superantibus. T. anemonoides, ‘radice grumosa,’ i.e. with tuberous roots. T. TUBEROSUM. radice grumosa, floribus laxe corymbosis solitariisve(DeCandolle), section Grumosa. With the roots grumose, the sepals petaloid, overreaching the stamens. T. tuberosum, with the root grumose, with the flowers laxly corymbose or solitary.

NOTE: T. tuberosum has a ‘tuberous root;’ such a root is generally understood to be “a thick and fleshy root like a tuber but without buds, as in the dahlia” (Oxford Dict. March 26, 2018): buds are formed on stems, not roots: tuberous roots are ‘fleshy’ roots, such as carrots and beets (modified from taproots), those of cassava (manioc) are modified from an adventitious root. Note that tubers “are modified, fleshy underground stems”(Encyclopaedia Britannica March 26, 2018), hence their buds.

NOTE: DeCandolle’s Ranunculus section Thora has grumose roots: R. Thora, R. scutatus, R. brevifolius, R. hybridus; as does the species Delphinium mensiersii.

5. [fungi]

a). “the dark fungous mass or black spots associated with diseases of potatoes which present brown grumose granules in the tissue of the tuber.”

NOTE: the substance of the tuberous roots themselves are considered ‘feculent;’ see feculentus,-a,-um (adj.A).

b). ‘grumose’ associated with the old genus Grumaria, which, at the time of Burnett (1835) was vaguely associated with algae. A subtype of the Byssoidaceae of 1835 was the Phylleridae (of Phylleriaceae), growing on living leaves. Organisms of this subtype comprised the genus Erineum, which could be distributed into subordinate groups Phyllerium, Erineum (or Grumaria) and Taphria (Burnett p. 170).

Grumaria had later been treated as a section of Erineum. Erineum is associated with fibrous masses (= flocci). Section Grumaria has “floccis breviter clavatis.” Other texts describe the flocci (as trichomes or other soft hair-like structures) as variously enlarged at the tips, as capitate, clavate, turbinate or tuberculate.

GRUMARIA a genus of fungi “The subgenus Phyllerium was employed by these writers for forms with simple trichomes, while Erineum proper or Grumaria signified those with capitate or mushroom-shaped trichomes.” The surface view of leaves infected with a species (of Erineum) in sect. Grumaria are described in English as grumose, i.e. covered with particles or grains: granular, beady, crummy, grainy in appearance.”

E.g. Erineum lineola (section Grumaria) has straight beady lines, midway between the ribs or closely bordering the ribs on the upper side of the leaf. The trichomes are capitate.

Erineum roseum is composed of small irregular, crummy [i.e. grumose] patches of a blood-red color.

NOTE: the genus Erineum Pers. is not a fungus after all, the genus “is based on outgrowths caused by mites (Arachnida)” (Ainsworth & Bisby). A phytoptid is a (gall) mite of the family Phytoptidae: Phytoptus is the type genus of the Phytoptidae, “a family of minute plant-parasitic mites ... often treated as a subfamily of Eriophyidae” (WIII). For example, the gall of Eriophyes californica is composed of a woolly mass of tangled fibers. Within the phytoptid galls of North America, there is a “section with enlarged or deformed trichomes characterized by granular secretions” (G.H. Chadwick; A Catalogue of the ‘phytoptid’ galls of North America).

- Erineum (section Grumaria) floccis breviter clavatis, with the flocci shortly clavate [i.e. club-shaped].

- [Erineum alneum; ‘fungus’] hypophyllum, plerumque effusum, grumosum, subimmersum, Erineum on the under surface of the leaf, usually outspread, grumose [i.e. grainy], somewhat immersed.

- [Erineum alneum; ‘fungus’] valde grumosum ac grossum, planum vel subpulvinatum (S&A), strongly grumose [i.e. perhaps the grains large] and thick [i.e. coarse], flat or slightly pulvinate.